Full of Light, Full of Love
by thatsanotherlovestory
Summary: A home for the gifts I've written for Klaroline Gift Exchanges hosted on Archive of Our Own.
1. with whom you leave your heart

Hello and welcome, lovely readers, to my collection of gifts that I've written for Klaroline gift exchanges hosted on Archive of Our Own. I've decided to repost them all here so that everyone can read them on their preferred platform.

* * *

For my contribution to this year's Klaroline Valentine's Gift Exchange, I wrote the prompt, "What if when Caroline was so open and honest about her feelings for Klaus and how much they scared her, she was actually talking to Klaus, not Silas in Klaus's form?"

I loved writing this prompt, and I enjoyed exploring how Klaus's presence might have effected the events of the end of the season.

I used some of the original dialogue from the show in this work, so this is just my disclaimer saying that I don't anything from the show.

The title was inspired by the upcoming season premiere of The Originals, titled "Where You Left Your Heart."

Happy Valentine's Day and happy reading!

* * *

Caroline was standing in the Salvatores' driveway, making a mental checklist of supplies she wanted to bring back to help Matt. Distracted, she lost her grip on her car keys and they fell to the ground. She was silently berating herself for her clumsiness ('you're a vampire, Caroline, you should at least be able to hold on to your keys') when she heard a rustling noise behind her.

"Who's there?" she called out.

She turned around to see Klaus, who she hadn't seen since the night of prom, standing behind her, a small smile on his face.

"Oh my God," Caroline breathed.

Klaus was the last person she expected to see in the Salvatores' driveway. She'd been told that he was in New Orleans—though no one would tell her why—and that he wasn't coming back. So why was he here? Could he have returned just for her? There had to be some limit to what Klaus would do to win her over, and she refused to believe that he wouldn't draw the line somewhere before traveling across the country. She didn't know why Klaus had gone to New Orleans, but considering the haste with which he left, she assumed it must be important, more important than she was.

"Hello, Caroline."

Klaus gestured for her to follow him into the woods beside the Salvatores' property. Caroline followed without giving his actions much thought. Klaus always had a reason for everything he did. He likely wanted to put some distance between them and the house to ensure that they had some privacy, which made Caroline wonder what he wanted to say to her that he didn't want the vampires still in the Salvatores' house, including his own sister, to hear.

"Everyone said that you were gone for good," Caroline started timidly, not wanting to sound like she was challenging him—or like she was hurt by his sudden disappearance.

"It's true," Klaus confirmed. "But I never meant to leave without saying goodbye."

Caroline cringed inwardly. Just saying that he hadn't meant to leave without saying goodbye didn't mean anything to her, since that was exactly what he'd done. Caroline thought over his statement again. Had he attempted to say goodbye to her and found her unavailable, or had he not even bothered to try?

"You don't owe me an explanation," Caroline scoffed. "You're moving on. By all means, go."

She meant it. Caroline had no delusions of grandeur. She didn't consider herself so important that Klaus Mikaelson, Original Hybrid and most powerful creature on Earth, would notify her of his plans. Klaus would do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to do it, and if that included leaving without any explanation, then that's what he would do.

Although she did scold herself for adding the statement about him moving on. She had to remain distant, keep up the appearance that Klaus's absence hadn't bothered her at all, that she hadn't taken it personally. She wasn't in a relationship with Klaus, and she was technically still in a relationship with Tyler. If Klaus was moving on from whatever semblance of a flirtation they had, it was really none of her business.

"Well, that's just it, isn't it? I never had any intention of moving on," Klaus confessed. "The truth is, I've tried to stop thinking about you, and I can't."

Caroline increased her pace, surpassing Klaus and walking deeper into the woods, as if the trees would keep her from hearing his candid admissions of his feelings for her. If he kept making proclamations like that, she wouldn't be able to pretend his words had no effect on her for much longer.

There was something sincere in his words that made her feel like he was telling the truth. He wasn't just saying it because he was trying to win her over or lure her into his bed. He genuinely hadn't been able to stop thinking about her, despite making an effort to do so. Rather than feel insulted that he was actively trying not to think about her, Caroline chose to focus on his honesty with her, something that he wasn't known for in his interactions with others. Only for her, it seemed, would Klaus fully expose the inner workings of his heart and mind.

"Come to New Orleans," Klaus said in tone that if Caroline didn't know him better, she might have described as pleading.

"What are you so afraid of?" Klaus asked, exasperated.

Caroline whirled around to face him.

Maybe it was the blunt honesty with which he had confessed that he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her. Maybe it was his sincere plea for her to come with him when he left. Maybe it was lightning strike of pain that flashed through her heart at the idea of him really moving away permanently. Maybe it was some combination of all three. But whatever the reason was, when Klaus asked her what she was afraid of, his voice rising in volume, betraying a level of frustration he rarely showed around her, her façade of not caring about him came crashing down.

"You!" Caroline retorted. "I'm afraid of you."

"Isn't it more accurate to say you're afraid of yourself, your darkest desires?" Klaus taunted. "I see the flush on your cheeks, the way your heart races when I touch you. You want to know what my hands would feel like moving across your skin, you want me to place the hearts of everyone who has ever wronged you in your hands. You can't deny that somewhere in your pure, golden heart you want to know what the darkness feels like."

Caroline felt herself flush at Klaus's words. Yes, she'd had errant thoughts about what it would be like to be with Klaus, but she'd always pushed them away immediately, feeling guilty for having them in the first place. She'd had similar passing fantasies about getting revenge on everyone who had hurt her, but she'd never acted on those either. She was supposed to be Caroline the Good Vampire, with perfect control and a positive attitude. If she had dark thoughts of lust and vengeance at all, it was because he'd corrupted her.

"Because of you!" Caroline exclaimed. "You made me that way, you made me want all of that, and I'm afraid of what else you could make me do! I don't want this darkness you're offering, I don't want to be dark like you!"

Their conversation about darkness pulled a scene from Caroline's memory to the forefront of her consciousness: the night Klaus had told her that he 'fancied' her because she was 'strong, beautiful, and full of light.' Caroline was certain that she'd never heard a more flattering description of herself. Caroline wanted to see herself that way, too. She wanted to keep a tight grip on her humanity, her optimism, her compassion, her dedication; everything about her that made her 'full of light.' If Klaus really fancied her, even loved her, because of her those traits, he wouldn't want Caroline to lose her light any more than she did, so why was he pushing her to revel in the darkness that admittedly intrigued her, the darkness in him?

"Don't you see what I'm offering you?" Klaus asked. "You are Persephone, my love. You have the King of the Underworld kneeling at your feet," Klaus paused to actually kneel before her, taking both of her hands in his own and lacing their fingers together. "You would be my queen, the last glimpse of light that those condemned souls would ever see. I would share all of my wealth and power with you for the rest of eternity. That is what I am offering you."

Caroline was stunned. She knew how Klaus felt about her; she'd even gone so far as to tell him she knew he was in love with her, but she never would have imagined him literally kneeling in front of her, offering her the chance to be his queen, to have every experience and possession she could ever ask for. She knew absence made the heart grow fonder, as the expression went, but she was taken aback by how forthcoming Klaus was being about his feelings in comparison to the last time she saw him. Of course, to be fair, she'd also been more honest about her feelings for him than she'd ever been.

"Did it ever occur to you that you saying things like this are part of what makes me so afraid of you? That all your talk about 'the rest of eternity,' and 'perhaps one day, in a year or even in a century,' and 'there's a whole world out there waiting for you' is kind of scary for an eighteen-year-old who's never left Mystic Falls? I never asked for any of that, all I ever asked for was to not die, and now you're standing there waiting for me to agree to be your queen for the rest of time, as if I can say with any certainty whether or not I'll love you or you'll love me in a hundred years, or a thousand years, when I haven't lived that long and I can't even predict how I'll feel about you tomorrow!" Caroline exclaimed.

Caroline had been scared of Klaus's love for her since the moment she'd figured out the extent of his feelings. Klaus had devoted himself to breaking his curse for hundreds of years with a single-minded focus that she'd never seen before. The prospect of being the object of attention and dedication that intense made Caroline feel like she'd been placed on display at a museum or at the altar at a temple, meant to adored, admired, revered, and worshipped, with no memory of what she'd done to deserve such treatment. Though the remnants of insecure human Caroline questioned whether or not Klaus would really want her forever as he claimed, the rational part of her mind knew that Klaus was constant, persistent, determined—if he was promising her the throne next to his, he would keep her throne ready for her until she claimed it for herself.

"My words must have had quite the impact on you for you to have memorized them," Klaus smirked. "Why are you so reluctant to accept that you are a vampire, Caroline? You are not limited to one town or one lifetime anymore. You can spend a hundred years living in Paris, and then a hundred years living on a beach in the Caribbean, and then a hundred years in a chalet in the Swiss Alps. You can have anything and everything that you decide you want, and I want you to have all of it."

"What if I don't want Paris, or the Swiss Alps, or New Orleans, or you?" Caroline retorted. Seeing the hurt look on Klaus's face, she tried to backtrack. She'd just been trying to prove a point; that even as well as he knew her, he couldn't decide for her what she wanted, but she felt cruel and malicious for even suggesting that she didn't want him. She almost laughed at the thought, that she'd been standing next to Klaus Mikaelson, Original Hybrid, mass murderer for the past thousand years, and she'd been the bad guy. "I'm not saying that I don't, but what is so wrong about wanting to stay with my mom, and my friends, and the town I grew up in? According to you, I have an eternity to do whatever I want, so why do I have to take on the world right now? Why can't I wait until I decide I'm ready, not when you decide I'm ready?"

"I've always admired your loyalty to the people you love, Caroline," Klaus told her. "All I've ever really wanted is to experience that for myself," Caroline looked away as they both realized the implication of his words. "All I want for you, is for you to have everything you want. While I hope that I may be included on that list, and that maybe you'll let me help, what's most important is for you to have the opportunity to take advantage of all of the benefits that come along with being a vampire."

"And I'm sure that your eagerness to help is completely selfless; you're just doing this out of the goodness of your heart," Caroline scoffed sarcastically.

"You are the only person who would accuse me of having goodness in my heart, but yes, I suppose your conclusion is correct. I am offering you all of the wealth and power I have accumulated over the last thousand years, and it is not insignificant. I am offering power and status in your own right as my queen, with subjects to rule and armies to command. I am offering my assistance, in any form you may need it, in making all of your hopes and dreams a reality. All I ask in return is your confession." Klaus said.

"My confession about what?" Caroline asked. She hadn't done anything wrong, had she? What could he possibly want her to confess?

"I would be a part of that deal, sweetheart," Klaus explained. "All I need to know is whether you would want to accept my offer, with all of its conditions."

Caroline stood in stunned silence, Klaus still on his knees in front of her.

She was fairly certain she'd never felt more overwhelmed than she had during this conversation with Klaus, although when she'd woken up a vampire might be the exception. She knew that Klaus wasn't exactly looking for a casual dating type relationship with her, that he'd decided that he wanted to be with her for the rest of his life. For him, this decision was black and white: either she agreed to be with him or she didn't, but either way, his future would be set in stone. But Caroline hadn't lived for a thousand years. She hadn't seen the world several times over and didn't know exactly what she wanted for eternity. At eighteen, she still had trouble even picturing where she would be and what she would be doing in a decade, let alone a century or a millennium like Klaus was thinking. He could sum up this entire decision in one yes or no question—would she agree to his offer of everything he possessed, plus himself, until the end of time, or would she walk away with nothing—but for Caroline it was more complicated.

"I can't do this right now," Caroline said. "Elena won't turn her humanity back on, Matt is failing multiple classes, and it's taking all of my self-control not to attack your sister. I can't make any sort of decisions about the rest of eternity right now. I can't even make any decisions about what I'm going to wear to graduation because I don't even know for sure if all of us are still going to be alive by then, and it's only days away!"

"Caroline, you know I would never let anything happen to you," Klaus tried to reassure her, standing up so that he could look at her face.

Caroline tried to pull away from him again, but Klaus gently placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her in place. Her stress and fear were starting to get the better of her, causing her to start trembling in Klaus's hold. Klaus's eyes met Caroline's worried gaze and he smiled forlornly.

"If you would let me, sweetheart, I would make sure that nothing every hurt you, and nothing ever scared you, and nothing ever made you unhappy," Klaus said softly.

Upon hearing Klaus's promise, Caroline, who had already allowed herself to be vulnerable to Klaus emotionally, finally let her guard down physically and fell forward into Klaus's arms, needing comfort that everyone else in her life was unwilling or unable to give. It had been days, if not weeks, since anyone had even asked her how she was before Klaus had found her that day. She had tried to hold in her frustrated, anxious tears, but in the safety of Klaus's embrace, she finally let them spill down her cheeks.

To his credit, Klaus didn't act startled or confused when Caroline pushed herself into his arms. He simply wrapped his arms tighter around her and rubbed her back comfortingly.

"It's okay, you're safe," Klaus murmured in her ear. "It's okay."

Caroline felt like she should have felt weak, and disgusted with herself for flinging herself at Klaus for comfort when she was upset, but in the moment, she just couldn't blame herself for seeking the safety and comfort that Klaus's presence provided her, nor could she force herself to pull away. As much as she'd become more capable and confident since becoming a vampire, she still wasn't, and possibly never would be, as strong, brave, and tough as Klaus and the other Originals, who had been alive for a thousand years; as Tyler, his werewolf friend Hayley, and the other hybrids, who had forced themselves to endure the painful process of turning themselves into wolves over and over in order to regain their free will. Caroline was more sensitive, more vulnerable, more emotional than any of them, and sometimes she just needed a hug from someone who cared about her to help her feel better.

She knew that if any of her friends could see this, they would berate her for fraternizing with the enemy, but Klaus certainly didn't feel like her enemy. Klaus had been a better friend to her in the last hour than Elena, Bonnie, and Stefan had been in weeks. He'd been a better boyfriend to her in the last hour than Tyler had been in months. Her group of friends knew from Elena's love triangle with the Salvatores that a person couldn't help who they loved. At least in Caroline's view, they also needed to accept that a person couldn't help who they were loved by, either.

"How are you going to make sure that nothing happens to me if you're all the way in New Orleans?" Caroline asked in a quiet voice, lifting her head a few inches from Klaus's shoulder and wiping her tears on the sleeves of her jacket.

Her eyes only met Klaus's for a second, but that brief period of eye contact was able to speak volumes. Caroline knew that her eyes, still shining with tears, were quietly pleading with him to do something to make her feel safe and secure. She would never admit out loud that she needed him, or even that she wanted him, but her eyes told a different story.

Klaus's eyes looked conflicted, as if he was considering all of the ways he could answer Caroline's question. After only a fraction of a second of internal deliberation, his face took on a calculating expression. He was coming up with a plan.

"I'll stay," Klaus announced suddenly.

"What?"

"You're quite right, Caroline. I cannot personally guarantee that no harm will come to you unless I take responsibility for keeping you safe. I thought about leaving a small group of minions here to keep an eye on you, but one never knows when their minions will prove incompetent, except to assume that they will do so at an incredibly inconvenient time, when they've been given an incredibly important task. As they say, if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. The job of making sure that you are safe and happy is one that must be done right, therefore, I must do it myself," Klaus answered.

"Are you sure?" Caroline asked. "You're really staying?"

"I will stay here, in Mystic Falls, until you either decide you want to take me up on my offer and return with me to New Orleans, or you decide you want nothing to do with me and I'll return to New Orleans myself," Klaus explained.

"A sad, lonely, old man," Caroline teased.

Klaus looked at her, unamused.

Caroline detached herself from Klaus, worried her lighthearted teasing hadn't been well-received, and feeling like if she'd felt comfortable enough to make fun of Klaus, she didn't need to rely on him for comfort anymore.

"Sorry, I won't mock you anymore," Caroline promised. "I'm just overwhelmed. You've just offered me the whole world and access to your surely considerable wealth. Tyler didn't even offer to let me come along when he left to break the sire bond. I don't know for sure if I want to be the queen of the dead, or however you put it, for the rest of my life, but I know I want more than Mystic Falls."

"You're being unusually open with me today," Klaus noted.

As Caroline started to respond, Klaus placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her back towards the Salvatores' house, where her car was still parked.

"I don't have anyone else to talk to," Caroline answered. "Elena has her humanity off, Stefan is working with Damon to try to get her to turn it back on, Bonnie is avoiding everyone, Matt has to study and Rebekah is helping him, and my mom is working, as usual. You're the only person who has made any effort to make room in their busy schedule for me, and I appreciate that."

Availability wasn't the only reason that Caroline had chosen to talk to Klaus, but she wasn't sure if she could handle making herself any more vulnerable at the moment. If they each kept letting their guards down, they would eventually have nothing left. You couldn't bare your heart without cracking open your own ribcage, and Caroline knew that her heart was safer locked away.

No, the more important reason that Caroline had talked to Klaus was because she trusted him and knew that she could rely on him, to listen to her, to protect her, and to try to make her feel better about everything that was bothering her. And considering how much she'd gotten out of the conversation and how much he'd given up for her, she knew that she owed him the full truth, but she couldn't force the words out of her mouth before Klaus started speaking.

"It's remarkable how no one else in your life has their priorities straight," Klaus smirked.

Caroline rolled her eyes. She knew Klaus and his feelings for her well enough by now to know that he meant what he said, but his openness about his affection for her and his disdain for her friends for not treating her as well as he thought she should be treated still caught her off guard sometimes.

"And I'm running around like a crazy person, finalizing plans for graduation, and trying to help Matt study, and checking in with Bonnie, and trying to get Elena to stop being an emotionless monster, on top of everything with Silas and the cure, and no one stops to say 'Hey, Caroline, you look stressed out, is there anything I can do to help?'" Caroline continued to rant.

"Is there anything I can help with, love?" Klaus asked.

"There's nothing anyone can do right now," Caroline sighed. "We just have to wait and see what Silas does, and if Elena turns her humanity back on, and if Bonnie ever makes contact again, and if Matt passes Italian. It's out of my hands, although that of course won't stop me from worrying about all of it," she grimaced. "But you are helping me right now by letting me vent, so thank you for that."

"It's my pleasure, love, really," Klaus replied.

As they approached Caroline's car, she said, "Well, I guess I'll see you soon then, if you're staying here."

"I'm staying here," Klaus confirmed.

"Okay," Caroline said, pulling out her keys and, this time successfully, unlocking her car door. Not wanting to let him walk away without knowing how she really felt, she took a chance and blurted out what her response should have been when he'd commented on how open she'd been. "And, um, since we're being open and honest with each other today, I feel like I should tell you, I didn't just talk to you because you were the only one who's taken the time to actually listen to me. That's part of it, but it's also because I trust you, with everything that's going on, and I know that you'll protect me from all of it if you can. I knew that you would try to make me feel better, even if it was just scolding my friends for ignoring me or threatening to kill everyone who was making me worried or anxious. So I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate it, that you always treat me like spending time with me is an important use of your time, because no one else does that. So thank you."

"Oh, how I missed you, Caroline," Klaus chuckled. "We're going to have to address your insultingly low standards in friends at some point in the very near future. Let me know if you need anything, even if it's just someone to listen while everyone else chooses to concentrate on less important things."

"I will, thanks," Caroline said, opening her car door and getting in the passenger seat. Klaus closed her door for her, and as she reversed down the driveway, Klaus still stood in place, watching her drive away until she was out of sight.

{ }

Caroline didn't see Klaus in person again for more than a few minutes until the day Bonnie dropped the veil. Most of Caroline's time was spent helping Matt study, preventing Elena from killing Katherine, and trying to reach Bonnie, while also studying for her own finals and writing her valedictorian speech.

(When Caroline had called Klaus to tell him about the honor, he'd said, "I told you that you were better than anyone else in this town.")

Even though the only time they'd been able to spend together in person was a few times they'd both happened to be at the Grill at the same time, Klaus always answered on the first ring whenever Caroline called.

"What is it that you're supposed to be doing right now?" Caroline had asked him once. She didn't understand how Klaus could take off for another state in the middle of the night, without saying goodbye, yet have the free time to return for the sole purpose of watching out for her only days later.

"Nothing more important than you are, love," Klaus had responded.

Caroline had sighed and given up hope at ever getting a serious answer.

Klaus was seriously committed to getting her to agree to come to New Orleans with him, and he wasn't above using flattery to do it, especially when Caroline had outlawed bribery after he gave her a gold fleur-de-lis necklace and luxurious silk dresses in purple, gold, and green—the colors of Mardi Gras.

(She kept all of them, though, just in case.)

On the day Bonnie dropped the veil, Caroline was with Matt and, reluctantly, Rebekah at the Grill when a powerful storm kicked up outside. Within moments, Klaus was throwing open the door and charging towards her.

"I don't want you to worry, but something's happening. This storm isn't natural, it's magical. I need you to stay here where you'll be out of harm's way." Klaus ordered.

"Why would you think I would worry about that?" Caroline deadpanned sarcastically.

"I'm serious, Caroline," he said, gently pushing her back onto her stool. "I'll come back for you as soon as I can, but I need you to stay put so that I know you're safe."

"But I want to help!" Caroline pleaded.

Klaus affectionately brushed Caroline's hair off of her face.

"Please, love," Klaus said quietly, taking her hands in his. "I don't know for certain what we're getting ourselves into out there. I'm not going to be doing anyone any good if I'm spending all of my time making sure nothing dangerous gets too close to you. I'll be too preoccupied with keeping you safe to help make sure everyone in town is safe. Please stay here."

Caroline looked into Klaus's eyes. They were completely sincere; a frantically swirling mix of concern, fear, and uncertainty.

"Okay, I'll stay," Caroline agreed, knowing how much this meant to Klaus and that he would argue with her all night if he had to.

"Come back as soon as you can so I know you're safe."

Klaus reluctantly relinquished his grip on Caroline's hands.

"Don't let her out of your sight," Klaus told Rebekah, affectionately squeezing his sister's shoulder.

"Be careful," Caroline whispered. "Stay safe."

Klaus nodded, the flashed out the door without another word.

Rebekah and Matt looked over at Caroline, clearly confused by what had just happened.

"How long has Klaus been back?" Matt asked.

"Since the day Elena turned her humanity back on," Caroline answered. "I ran into him when I went to get you my study guides and flash cards to help you study. I would have told you, but I decided you had more important things to worry about."

Matt grimaced nervously after Caroline finished her explanation.

"See, I might have done something that seemed like a good idea at the time, but now seems like it was a mistake," he said.

"What did you do?" Caroline asked warily.

"I sort of told Tyler that Klaus was gone so he could come back home," Matt winced. "He got back last night."

"Well, that isn't good," Caroline stated. "We will just have to make sure that they do not cross paths until you can tell Tyler that it isn't safe for him to be here. Wait, have you been in touch with him this whole time?" Caroline demanded.

"I mean, we weren't talking every day or anything, but I had his new phone number in case of emergency or really important news. I thought Klaus leaving was really important news," Matt defended himself.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Matt, it's okay," Caroline assured him.

"You two do realize that my brother will kill Tyler if he sees him, correct?" Rebekah interjected.

A moment later, the Grill's door banged open again. Expecting it to be the wind, Caroline and Rebekah didn't bother turning around, but Matt looked up.

"Tyler!" he greeted nervously.

Caroline spun around on her stool.

Tyler Lockwood was standing in the middle of the Grill, his trademark easygoing smile on his face, despite the storm outside—and the metaphorical one inside.

"Tyler," Caroline whispered. "It's so good to see you!"

"You've missed a lot," Caroline started, snapping right into business mode. "All three sacrifices were completed, which means Silas is preparing to lower The Veil and essentially cause the supernatural apocalypse, as you can see by the storm outside, Elena turned her humanity back on… back up, Elena turned her humanity off after Jeremy died, but it's back on now, Klaus went to New Orleans and now he's back. I think that's everything," Caroline listed.

"Klaus is here?" Tyler seethed. "Just when we think he's finally out of our lives for good."

"Speak for yourself," Rebekah cut in. "I'm stuck with him forever."

"You have my sympathies," Tyler responded.

"Please be nice," Caroline pleaded with both of them.

"Tyler, you should probably go as soon as possible," Matt suggested.

"Could I talk to Caroline for a minute first?" Tyler asked.

"Make it quick," Rebekah ordered. "That is the first and last piece of friendly advice I'll give you."

Matt led Rebekah into the storage room so that Caroline and Tyler would have a little privacy.

Tyler didn't hesitate once they left.

"Care, you deserve better than to constantly be waiting for someone who's on the run and can never see you," he said.

"We both deserve better than this," Caroline corrected. "We were apart for more of our relationship than we were together, and I love that you kept coming back for me, but you can't keep looking over your shoulder to see if I'm okay when your first priority has to be taking care of yourself. I'll always have a lot of love for you, Tyler, but let's face it, we were not each other's epic loves. You are a person I will always love, as a friend I grew up with and survived our initiations into the world of the supernatural with, but you aren't the love of my life, and I'm not yours, and we both deserve to find that."

Caroline felt a few tears fall down her cheeks, but she wasn't heartbroken or devastated as her heart finally caught on to what her subconscious already knew: her relationship with Tyler was over, this time for good.

"You might just be the best person in this world, Caroline Forbes," Tyler told her. "I have to go. Take care of yourself."

Without waiting to let her respond, Tyler sped out of the Grill.

Caroline took a deep breath to steady herself, then called out in a voice she knew Rebekah's vampire hearing could hear, "He's gone, you guys can come out now."

Matt and Rebekah slinked sheepishly back to the bar.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you he was back, Care," Matt apologized.

"It's fine," Caroline replied. "You were just trying to protect a friend, I understand."

They only had to endure another forty-five minutes of stilted awkwardness intermittently punctuated by cordial but disinterested small talk before Klaus returned with Stefan, Damon, Elena, and Bonnie in tow.

"What happened, is everyone all right?" Caroline asked as soon as they were all through the door.

"Bonnie dropped the veil," Stefan answered.

"Meaning that every dead supernatural creature is wandering around Mystic Falls, many of them looking to avenge their own deaths, a staggering amount of which were at the hands of someone in this room," Klaus explained.

"So, is it safe to go home, or do we all need to stay here and have a slumber party?" Caroline asked.

"We should be fine once we get home. Even dead vampires are still vampires and need to be invited inside," Klaus reassured her. "But just to be safe, no one should walk home alone so that we all have back up in case we do get attacked."

"I have my car here if anyone wants a ride home," Caroline offered.

Everyone else followed Caroline out of the restaurant.

Matt and Rebekah got into Matt's truck, Damon, Stefan, and Elena all squeezed into Damon's car, leaving Caroline with Bonnie and Klaus.

Bonnie, clearly exhausted from the magic she had just performed, crawled into the backseat of Caroline's car and curled up onto the seat. Seeing how tired her friend was, Caroline drove towards her house first. Bonnie managed to sleepily stumble out of the car a few minutes later, murmuring good night to Caroline and waving halfheartedly as she closed her front door behind her.

As they pulled away from Bonnie's house, Caroline turned to Klaus in her passenger's seat.

"So, are you coming to graduation tomorrow?" Caroline asked.

"Would you like me to come?" Klaus asked.

"Sure! The more the merrier!" Caroline enthused. "My mom is rearranging her schedule tomorrow so that she can make it to the ceremony before she has to break up parties and write citations for underage drinking, but if for some reason something happens, which isn't unlikely with every dead supernatural creature in town, and she can't make it, it would be nice to know that there's someone in the stands cheering for me."

"If you would like me to be there, I will be there," Klaus promised.

"Thanks, Klaus," Caroline said as they pulled into the long driveway in front of the Mikaelsons' house.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Caroline," Klaus called out as he walked into his house.

On Caroline's short drive home from Klaus's, she could have sworn she saw the face of one of the witches she had killed to save Bonnie in her rear view mirror, then she shook herself and told herself it was just her fear playing tricks on her.

Mystic Falls had become a ghost town, and there were more people in it than ever.

{ }

Caroline woke up early on the day of graduation to a knock on her front door. She groaned and turned over, hoping that her mother would answer the door and she could get a few more minutes of sleep.

Unfortunately, Caroline's mother had already left for work, since she was starting early that day so that she would be able to attend graduation that evening before returning to work, where she would undoubtedly spend the night breaking up the inevitable graduation parties that would start soon after the ceremony.

Caroline stumbled out of bed and opened the front door. She yawned before she could see who it was. Her eyes still closed, she said, "I am graduating in twelve hours. Can someone else handle the supernatural shenanigans until after the ceremony is over?"

"High school graduation? How quaint. Congratulations, cupcake!" Katherine Pierce taunted with fake enthusiasm.

Of all the things Caroline had expected to see when she opened the door, Katherine standing on her porch wearing skintight black leather pants, a black leather jacket, and sky-high stiletto heels, her dark hair in wild curls and her lips painted deep red was probably the last thing she would have guessed.

"What are you doing here, Katherine?" Caroline asked.

"If I could come in, I would tell you," Katherine retorted.

"My mom isn't here," Caroline told her. "You can't come in."

"Fine," Katherine said. "We can do this here."

"It's seven in the morning, Katherine, please just spit it out," Caroline requested.

"I have the cure, and I want you to convince your boyfriend to give me my freedom in exchange for it," Katherine announced.

"Klaus isn't my boyfriend, but that isn't the point," Caroline shook her head. "Why are you asking me?"

"Because I'm the one who sent Klaus to New Orleans, I thought for good, but he still came back to this pathetic town, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that he came back for you," Katherine elaborated. "I gave the cure to Elijah to negotiate my freedom from Klaus, and he ended up delivering it to Silas, so I need a new middleman."

"Why would you… never mind, I don't really care right now. I don't think I have as much influence over him as you think I do," Caroline hedged.

"Neither of us believe that," Katherine dismissed. "So will you do it or not? Come on, help out an old friend, Care Bear."

Caroline cringed at the nickname.

"I'm not sure I'd call you 'an old friend,' no offense. You did kill me, Katherine," Caroline replied.

"How have you survived this long?" Katherine wondered incredulously. "I mean, Klaus being obsessed with you probably has a lot to do with it, but the second he steps away, you are going to crumble like a sugar cookie if you don't drop the sweet, good girl attitude and learn some self-preservation."

"I have learned self-preservation!" Caroline insisted.

"If you say so, sweetie," Katherine said condescendingly. "Except that you're worried about offending me even though I literally killed you, and you still haven't asked the most important question, the one that would have been the first thing Klaus, or any of the Originals, or I would have said when I asked for this favor."

Caroline wracked her brain. After a moment, she gave up.

"Which is?" she asked.

"What's in it for me?" Katherine answered.

"Oh," Caroline paused. "Well, I guess I don't really want anything from you… I mean, it would be nice if you didn't use the cure against anyone who didn't want to take it, but I wouldn't have to worry about that if you didn't have the cure anymore, and I'd appreciate it if you would stop terrorizing Elena and the Salvatores, but I feel like if you got your freedom and could do whatever you wanted, you wouldn't waste your time on them."

"You're smart," Katherine complimented. "Intuitive, perceptive. You have the potential to be a great vampire."

"Um, thank you?" Caroline said, unsure why Katherine was complimenting her. "And I think that the next question you or Klaus would ask would be if you actually had the cure in your possession right now."

Katherine smiled approvingly.

"See? You're learning," she said, pulling a small vial out of the pocket of her jacket. "Here it is."

Caroline inspected the little container of red liquid in Katherine's hand. She'd never seen the cure, so she wasn't sure what she was looking at, but she certainly hadn't been expecting the cure for vampirism to look so ordinary.

"But I have no way to prove that that's the cure and not some copy you've created without forcing you to take it, thus wasting it if it is real," Caroline realized, scrunching up her nose.

"I guess you'll just have to trust me," Katherine shrugged. "And if there's anything I've learned over the last five hundred years, it's that no one can really outsmart Klaus. Last year, he captured me, and he could have killed me, but he let me go, because he wanted me to keep running from him. That was part of my punishment, to always be looking over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't behind me. I wouldn't be surprised if he always knew exactly where I was, he just chose to let me think I'd been able to outrun him. I know what the consequences would be if I tried to trick him now."

"I believe you," Caroline told her. "How did you manage to steal the cure from Silas?"

"I look exactly like the love of his life that he's been pining for for over two thousand years, it wasn't hard to make him believe I was her," Katherine said, inspecting her nails as if recounting this dangerous, manipulative scheme was boring to her. "I convinced him that I was Amara and that Bonnie had revived me because the cure had to be activated with my blood in order to work. He gladly handed it over and I ran for it, but considering that Bonnie turned him to stone not long after that, he's got bigger problems than a little identity theft."

"Why did we never think of that?" Caroline complained.

"You're the good girl, Caroline, you don't want to hurt anyone," Katherine said. "But I've become an expert at finding people's weaknesses. Why do you think Silas never appeared to anyone in Elena's form? He tried to manipulate Bonnie last night by showing up as one of her best friends, and he chose you, not her."

"I guess that makes sense," Caroline conceded.

"I'm going to help you," Caroline decided impulsively.

"Just like that?" Katherine double-checked.

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no crime that justifies five hundred years of penance, and I know that most of my friends don't trust you, and don't want you to have the power that the cure gives you," Caroline explained. "You're right, I don't want to hurt anyone, and I think that this is the only way that everyone wins. Klaus gets control over the cure, you get your freedom, and everyone else gets the peace of mind of knowing that you don't have the cure and it won't be used against them."

"So you'll talk to Klaus?" Katherine confirmed.

"I'll take the cure from you now; we'll consider me your escrow account. Then I will tell Klaus that you are offering him the cure in exchange for your freedom. I'm sure he will inevitably ask me if I trust you and if he should agree to the deal, to which I will say yes. He will think it over for a few minutes, then accept your terms, at which point I will call you and you can do whatever you want after that," Caroline planned.

Katherine gave the cure to Caroline.

"Thanks for doing this, Caroline," she said sincerely.

"You're welcome," Caroline replied. "I have to get ready, I have to distribute yearbooks at school in an hour."

"Have fun at graduation," Katherine offered before speeding off the porch.

{ }

Caroline spent the rest of the day oscillating between human and supernatural crises.

Graduating in the middle of a supernatural apocalypse was certainly a major dilemma, but being unable to find anything to wear to graduation was also a dilemma in Caroline's book.

She'd arrived back home after a full day of yearbook distribution and practicing her valedictorian speech and had spent the last ten minutes staring at her closet unhappily.

"There aren't any monsters in there, love, they're all outside," Klaus's voice interrupted from the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" Caroline asked.

"I came to give you a graduation present," Klaus answered.

"It's customary to wait until after the ceremony to give the graduate their gift," Caroline informed him.

"I do have a gift to give you after the ceremony," Klaus said. "I just thought you might want to have this one before the ceremony."

"You didn't have to buy me anything, let alone two things!" Caroline insisted.

"I didn't buy this, love," Klaus declared, handing her a familiar-looking jewelry box.  
Sure enough, inside was the diamond bracelet that Klaus had given her for her last birthday.

"Thank you for allowing me to connect with you," Klaus said simply, referring to the scathing rebuke she'd fired at him before throwing the bracelet in his face.

"Thank you for this," Caroline said. "Are you sure it's good enough for me though? I mean, this is a princess's bracelet, and if I'm meant to be a queen…" she trailed off, hoping that Klaus would see her comment for the joke she had intended it as.

"There is plenty of jewelry fit for a queen in your future, my love," Klaus responded. "This is primarily for sentimental value; a reminder that you can have the whole world and I will ensure that you have it."

"Thank you, Klaus," Caroline repeated in a quieter, more heartfelt tone.

"You're very welcome," Klaus replied.

"Oh! I have something for you, too," Caroline said, pulling the cure out of her top dresser drawer.

"Where did you get that?" Klaus asked.

"Katherine gave it to me this morning," Caroline answered. "She came by to ask for my help in brokering a deal, in which she would give you the cure in exchange for her freedom."

"She had no business getting you involved," Klaus spat.

"And yet, here I am, involved," Caroline rolled her eyes. "Apparently she asked Elijah earlier, but he ended up accidentally giving the cure to Silas when he was in Rebekah's form, so she asked me. I told her I would help."

"Why would you do that?" Klaus asked.

"Because self-preservation is not a crime, let alone one that justifies being punished for it for five centuries," Caroline said. "Because you want control over the cure, and this will allow you to have that. Because—to their surprise, I'm sure—I think more of my friends would be more comfortable with you having the cure than Katherine. Katherine gets her freedom, you get the cure, and everyone else gets peace of mind, knowing that the cure won't be used as a weapon against them. Everyone wins."

"And you trust that Katherine is telling the truth? That that is the real cure?" Klaus asked.  
Caroline had to work to hide her smile as Klaus began the script she'd predicted to Katherine earlier.

"I believe her," Caroline declared. "I think she's tired of running from you, and she knows that if she tries to fool you with a fake cure, the last five hundred years will look like a beach vacation compared to what you would do in retaliation for that."

"Do you think that Katherine deserves her freedom? Especially considering everything she's done to you," Klaus asked.

"There's no crime that comes with a five-hundred-year sentence," Caroline pronounced solemnly. "She was just trying to survive. She just wanted to live. How is that any different from any of us? Maybe you've forgotten that I was in the same position that she was in: about to be killed in a sacrifice so that you could become a hybrid, something that you were so focused on that you didn't care how many people had to die to make it happen. And I can guarantee you, that if I hadn't been rescued, if Damon hadn't decided that the best way to try to stop the ritual so that Elena wouldn't be killed was to take away the other required pieces of the puzzle, I would have taken any opportunity I could find or create for myself to escape, just like Katherine did. Because neither of us wanted to die."

Klaus stared into Caroline's eyes for a long moment, as if searching for any hint that she was manipulating him or being dishonest. Evidently, he found no such thing, because he sighed and said, "Very well. I will accept the terms of Katherine's deal and grant her her freedom."

Caroline held out the cure to Klaus in one hand and dialed her cell phone with the other.

"I made the deal," Caroline said when Katherine answered.

"And?" was Katherine's response.

"Enjoy your freedom, 'old friend,'" Caroline told her.

Katherine hung up without replying.

"Now on to an equally important dilemma," Caroline changed the subject. "Which one?"

Caroline held up the three dresses that Klaus had given her.

"I don't want to wear the green because my gown is red and I don't want to look like a Christmas tree skirt," Caroline said, throwing the dress on her bed. "I think the gold might be too yellow, and as a blonde, I generally avoid yellow," she threw that one with the green dress. "I'm going with the purple one, thanks for your help, Klaus."

"Whatever you say, love," Klaus agreed.

Caroline hurried into her bathroom and pulled on the purple dress, which had a modest scoop neck, fluttering ruffled cap sleeves, a ruffled hem, and fastened with pearl buttons up the back.

"Klaus?" Caroline called out.

He appeared in a fraction of a second.

"Will you button up my dress, please?" She requested politely.

Klaus did so without objection.

After he'd finished, Caroline put on the simple pearl pendant necklace she'd worn to prom and the bracelet Klaus had just returned to her, then moved on to finishing her hair and makeup.

She'd just put the finishing touches on her face make up and was choosing subtle, rosy shades for her eyes and lips when her cell phone went off.

"Caroline!" Stefan blurted in a panic as soon as she answered.

"What's wrong?" Caroline asked.

"The hunter from the island, he's back with the Veil dropped, and he shot Damon with bullets soaked in werewolf venom," Stefan rushed to explain. "I know that he doesn't really like him, but could you please ask Klaus to give Damon some of his blood?"

Caroline pulled the phone away from her mouth to talk to Klaus.

"Damon had an incident involving werewolf venom, can you please go save his sorry self?" she asked.

Klaus sighed, but nodded and left the room.

"He's on his way," Caroline informed Stefan.

"He was there?" Stefan asked.

"Yes," Caroline answered. "He wanted to give me a graduation present, and Katherine wanted to make a deal and I somehow got involved. Stefan, I have to finish getting ready, but I'll see you at school, okay?"

Stefan reluctantly agreed and they hung up.

By the time Caroline finished with her makeup, Klaus had returned.

"Damon Salvatore will live to irritate me another day," he announced.

"Thank you for doing that for Stefan," Caroline said.

"I did it because you asked me to, so you're welcome," Klaus replied.  
Caroline only took a few more minutes to get ready, then she collected her purse, cap, and gown, and left the house, Klaus on her heels. They each got in their own cars for the short drive over to the high school, where they immediately caught up with Bonnie, Elena, and Matt underneath the bleachers where they had all agreed to meet.

"Is Stefan here yet?" Caroline asked.

"He's on his way; he and Alaric were trying to take Damon home to rest after his ordeal today, but he insisted on coming to watch us graduate," Elena informed her.

"You mean watch you graduate," Bonnie corrected teasingly.  
Elena blushed.

"I think I'm going to find a seat; the ceremony is supposed to start soon," Klaus announced before kissing Caroline on the cheek and walking away without waiting for a response.

As Klaus started to walk away, Stefan approached from the parking lot.

"Now we're all here," Matt said with a wide smile.

"Graduation group hug!" Caroline cheered, throwing her arms around Elena and Bonnie, who were nearest to her.

"I don't really…" Stefan tried to object.

"If you are graduating today, you will participate in this group hug!" Caroline commanded, and sure enough, Stefan quickly took his place between Elena and Matt.

"Let's go graduate!" Caroline cheered, leading her friends on to the field.

{ }

After Caroline delivered her valedictorian speech (which received a standing ovation, of course), she found graduation to actually be rather boring, which was making her more stressed about all of the supernatural nonsense that was currently occurring.

As her name was called and she walked across the stage to receive her diploma, she scanned the crowd to see her mother and Klaus standing up and cheering for her from different sections of the bleachers.

After that, Caroline had nothing to distract her from her worry that graduation would be ruined by a dead vampire, witch, or werewolf holding a grudge from beyond the grave. She kept frantically scanning the crowd for anyone she recognized who wasn't supposed to be among the living, let alone among the spectators in the stadium.

When the last student's name was called and the ceremony finally ended, Caroline rushed over to hug her mother and accept her congratulations before the sheriff had to resume her duties and Caroline went to meet her friends.

They were meeting under the bleachers, in the same place they'd met before graduation. Caroline had sent Klaus a text message telling him to meet them there as well, because she wanted to tell her friends about the cure.

Caroline was looking for him when she was suddenly ambushed by the type of excruciating headache that only came at the hands of a very angry witch.

"Remember us, Caroline?" the witch, the one Caroline had killed to save Bonnie, asked, the eleven other witches who had died along with her trailing along behind her.

All of a sudden, a graduation cap of all things went flying through the air, decapitating the witch before she could advance any further.

"There are plenty more of these to go around," Klaus said nonchalantly, turning another graduation cap over in his hands. "Who's next? I could do this all day."

Caroline looked over at Klaus, finally able to move again now that the pain had dissipated. Klaus smiled at her, as if he was proud of himself for coming to her rescue. As much as the idea of Klaus as her fairy-tale prince would have usually made her laugh, she couldn't help but think that the comparison wasn't wholly inaccurate today.

"What's next?" Matt asked. "What do we do now?"

"I have to put the Veil back up," Bonnie said.

"We were just going to go back to the boarding house to spend as much time as we can with Jeremy and everyone before that happens," Elena added.

"And we have to figure out where Silas hid the cure before Bonnie desiccated him," Stefan chimed in.

"Oh, sorry, I must have forgotten to mention that Katherine stole the cure from Silas when I had my back turned for a second, but I'd already unlinked us and she ran as soon as she had it, and without the cure I knew it was even more important to keep Silas contained so I just did the spell as planned," Bonnie apologized.

"Katherine has the cure?" Elena exclaimed angrily.

"No, she doesn't," Caroline announced with a proud smile.

"What do you mean?" Stefan asked.

"Katherine came to my house this morning and asked for my help making a deal with Klaus to trade the cure for her freedom, and so I did and now Klaus had the cure and Katherine is probably out of the country by now," Caroline explained.

Elena, Bonnie, Stefan, and Matt all looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Klaus has the cure?" Elena stammered.

"Indeed, I do," Klaus confirmed.

"I have to go if I'm going to be ready in time to do the spell to put the Veil back up," Bonnie told them. "Just let me know what ends up happening with the cure."

Elena and Stefan quickly followed after Bonnie, wanting to spend time with their loved ones before Bonnie completed the spell and they would be gone again. Matt left for home shortly thereafter, hoping that his sister would be there waiting for him.

Caroline, however, as part of the graduation committee, had to stay to make sure that everyone's gowns were returned and packed away properly. Klaus followed her as she walked back to the stage at the center of the field.

"You don't have to stay for this, it's just clean up," Caroline told him.

"And leave you alone when any number of supernatural creatures are still wandering around town? Not likely, sweetheart," Klaus insisted.

A few minutes passed in comfortable silence as Caroline folded gowns and Klaus kept watch.

"I have your graduation present if you'd like it," Klaus broke the silence.

"You really didn't have to get me anything," Caroline protested weakly.

"It wasn't completely selfless," Klaus said cryptically.

"Well, now I have to know what it is," Caroline announced.

Klaus reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, pulled out an envelope, and handed it to Caroline.

Caroline carefully tore open the envelope to find three pieces of paper inside. One of them was a letter, which Caroline decided to read before looking at the other contents of the envelope.

 _'_ _Dear Caroline,_

 _I cannot imagine a life in which you do not have a bright future ahead of you, a future filled with love, laughter, passion, and adventure. I will always do everything I can to make sure that all of your dreams come true. You will travel the world, and fall in love with every place you visit, seeing art in progress and history in the making, sights that will make your breath catch and your heart race, and all I can hope for is that at the end of the day, your home is with me._

 _You will have a beautiful life, Caroline Forbes. I will ensure it._

 _Yours,_  
 _Klaus'_

Caroline was weeping openly by the time she finished reading the letter.

"Thank you," she whispered in a choked-up voice.

Klaus smiled softly.

"I meant it," he said.

Caroline pulled out the second piece of paper in the envelope.

It was a first class ticket to New Orleans.

"It's open-ended, so you can fly down whenever you'd like and come back whenever you'd like," Klaus explained. "I just hoped that you would want to join me at some point."

"When are you planning on leaving?" Caroline asked.

"Love, I told you I would stay here until either you agreed to come with me, or you told me you didn't want to come with me. So far, you haven't committed to either one of those options, you've just asked me for time. I plan to stay with you until you make a decision," Klaus explained.

"It's still a big decision," Caroline thought out loud. "I know you're not trying to, but it feels like you're giving me an ultimatum: either come with me and be in a relationship with me forever, or I'm going to walk away and you'll never see me again. Is there any room to compromise?"

"What did you have in mind?" Klaus asked.

"What if we…" Caroline trailed off to think of a plan. "What if we spent the summer in New Orleans? I didn't apply to any colleges there, and I don't think my mom would be too pleased if I bribed or compelled myself admission this late in the process, especially to move out of state for a guy. So, how about this: I want one year of a normal college experience with my friends here. If, after spending the summer in New Orleans with you, I think that this relationship will work out and I want to move there to be with you, I will apply to transfer in the fall so that I can start my second year of college in New Orleans. Does that seem fair?" Caroline asked.

"That sounds reasonable to me, sweetheart, if that will make you happy," Klaus agreed.

"When would you like to leave?"

"I'm not sure yet, I want to talk to my mom first," Caroline said.

Klaus agreed.

"There's still one more thing in that envelope that might help you with your plan," he said.  
Caroline took out the final piece of paper in the envelope and found herself looking at a check made out to her in Klaus's fancy penmanship.

For one million dollars.

On the memo line, he'd written, 'Congratulations, Caroline."

"I can't accept this," Caroline stuttered.

"Of course you can," Klaus insisted. "Save it, spend it, pay for college with it, take your mother on vacation with it. You can do a lot of good for yourself and the people you care about with that money, Caroline. Do whatever you'd like with it, there are no strings attached."

"You are being way too generous to me, I don't deserve all of this!" Caroline exclaimed.

"You deserve everything I have and more, sweetheart," Klaus argued. "You deserve the whole world on a silver platter. I am going to do whatever it takes to show you that you are worthy of everything the world has to offer."  
Caroline wiped away her tears again for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

"Let me take you out to a celebratory dinner and we can discuss this more," Klaus proposed. "We should probably leave here anyway, I want to keep you out of harm's way while my dead enemies are still on the loose."

Caroline agreed, taking Klaus's offered arm and letting him lead her out of the stadium and away from the school.

{ }

Caroline woke up the next morning in Klaus's arms.

She was dressed in black leggings, a bright pink sweater, and black slipper boots, none of which belonged to her, so she could only assume that they were Rebekah's.

She remembered going back to Klaus's house after their dinner, explaining that she didn't want to be alone in her house until Bonnie had restored the Veil. She remembered Klaus offering her some comfortable clothes to change into. She remembered receiving a message from Elena telling her that Bonnie had raised the Veil, Stefan had gone to bury Silas, and that both of them planned to spend the summer recuperating somewhere far away from Mystic Falls, and that she and Damon would be leaving the next day. She remembered that Jeremy was alive again. She remembered spending most of the night talking to Klaus, and agreeing to leave for New Orleans the next day, since everyone else seemed to be leaving town as well.

But she didn't remember falling asleep on the couch in Klaus's living room, curled up beside him with her head on his shoulder and his arms around her waist.

Her movements caused Klaus to startle awake, instantly alert.

"Good morning," Caroline told him.

"Good morning, love," Klaus replied.

Caroline stood up.

"I should go home and talk to my mom about New Orleans," Caroline said. "Plus I'll need to pack."

As Klaus was about to respond, the front door of the house opened forcefully and Klaus's brother Elijah quickly walked into the room like he was on a mission.

"There you are, Niklaus," he said in an exasperated, scolding tone. "You can't just run off for days without telling anyone where you are anymore, there are people who are depending on you. There was an incident that required your attention, and I had to resolve to the best of my ability in your absence."

"What happened?" Klaus asked warily, glancing at Caroline.

"Hayley was seen buying wolfsbane in the Quarter," Elijah announced, as if this event was some great tragedy that would alter their lives forever, though Caroline couldn't see why.

Elijah sighed at Klaus's lack of response.

"She was trying to get rid of the baby, Niklaus," he explained slowly, as if he was talking to a small child. "Surely you cannot care so little about your own child that you would allow Hayley to kill it? You needn't worry, she didn't get to use it, and I've ensured that one of us will always be watching her for the remainder of her pregnancy, or until she regains our trust, whichever comes first."

"I'm sorry," Caroline interrupted. "I must be hallucinating, or something, because I could've sworn you just said that Hayley, the werewolf who helped all of the hybrids break their sire bonds and then betrayed them all and set them up to be killed, is pregnant with Klaus's baby, which is impossible because Klaus has been technically dead for a thousand years, and therefore so is his reproductive system."

"Miss Forbes, is that correct?" Elijah confirmed.

"I'm Caroline," she informed him.

"My apologies, Caroline, then," Elijah corrected himself. "For reasons passing my understanding, a miracle has occurred and Hayley is in fact, expecting Niklaus's child, a hope for redemption for him, and for our family. Niklaus's recently unleashed werewolf side allowed him to conceive this child with a fellow wolf, according to the witches who confirmed the pregnancy and discovered this loophole."

"That's… shocking," Caroline stammered.

"You had not told her?" Elijah asked Klaus, who had been silent throughout Elijah's explanation.

"No, not yet," Klaus answered reluctantly.

"I shall give you two a moment to talk then," Elijah offered. "I apologize for my intrusion."

Then he quickly backed out of the room, leaving Klaus and Caroline alone, both suffocating in the now very tense atmosphere of the room.

"How long have you known about this?" Caroline asked, coating her voice in a thick layer of detached curiosity.

"Since the day I arrived in New Orleans," Klaus admitted sheepishly.

"Is there any particular reason you didn't tell me?" Caroline asked in the same tone. "I mean, this is a pretty big change in your life, I would have thought you might have wanted to talk about it with someone."

Klaus looked at her like he might look at a piece of abstract modern art, like a sign in a foreign language he didn't understand, like an alien from another galaxy.

"I don't understand," Klaus said.

"What don't you understand?" Caroline asked, now slightly confused herself. "Hayley is pregnant. With your baby. You and Hayley are having a baby together, congratulations!" Caroline said with false cheer.

"I don't understand why you aren't upset," Klaus clarified.

In all honesty, Caroline wasn't sure what she felt. She would have thought that after receiving the news that Klaus was expecting a child with someone else, with someone she didn't like, she would have been heartbroken and devastated, weeping on the floor and throwing things at him. But instead, she felt detached and cold, as if putting up a shield of ice would keep the hurt and heartache and jealousy from getting in.

"It's not like there's any point in getting upset," Caroline reasoned. "Me getting upset won't make Hayley not be pregnant. If I were to get angry, you would probably tell me that we weren't together, so you weren't cheating on me, and that you can do whatever you want and it's none of my business, and I guess, technically, you would be right. The only thing I can control in this situation is my own reaction, so that's what I'm doing."

"All right, but it's okay if you are upset," Klaus said, still confused, but now looking relieved as well. He'd clearly been expecting her to cry and yell at him, Caroline thought.

Normally Caroline's anger was hot and wet, tears and screaming, pouting and pleading. It was emotional, vulnerable, passionate—it came from a place of caring, of feeling too much, even at the expense of rational thought. Whatever it was she felt now was nothing like that, and she couldn't tell if she preferred it. This feeling was cold and dry, sharp and controlled. She felt completely rational, her judgment for once not clouded by emotions. Caroline wondered for a moment if she'd accidentally turned off her humanity before realizing that she could feel emotions brewing under the surface, threatening to take over if she stopped suppressing them. This feeling had a resignation to it, it taunted her, telling her that she didn't deserve to be angry, that she had no right to control who she had pushed Klaus towards when she'd pushed him away. She felt almost numb, yet brittle, as if one hit would crack her façade and leave her a crying mess on the floor. This feeling was torn between never letting Klaus see how much he'd hurt her, and hurting him in retaliation so that he would never hurt her again. Was this how Katherine felt all the time? Because Caroline could see the appeal. No one hurt you if you hurt them first, and no one left you if you left them before they got a chance to.

"Well, unless you have any other news, I'm just going to go home then. My mom should be home by now, and you and Elijah clearly need to catch up and I would just be getting in the way," Caroline said, gathering up her purse and walking towards the door.

"I will come by your house and pick you up as soon as I'm done speaking with Elijah," Klaus told her.

"Pick me up?" Caroline asked, feigning confusion. "For what?"

"You agreed to leave for New Orleans with me today," Klaus reminded her gently.

Caroline laughed mockingly, the cackle of an animated movie witch, a sound so cruel that she would have thought herself incapable of making it.

"I'm not going to New Orleans with you now," Caroline pronounced coldly. She sighed out another sarcastic laugh. "No, I'm not going to spend the next three months watching you rub Hayley's baby bump and listening to you two pick out baby names. You can go to New Orleans by yourself."

"You said you weren't upset," Klaus said, now completely bewildered and a little hurt.

"No, actually I didn't say that," Caroline corrected. "I said that there was no point in getting upset. Being overly emotional, girly little Caroline has never gotten me anywhere, so I'm taking my heart off my sleeve and putting it back in my chest where it belongs. I'm the one who gets to choose whether or not you're worth my tears, not you. That doesn't mean I don't feel hurt and offended and betrayed that you slept with someone I don't like, someone you don't even like, while you were in love with me—or maybe you weren't, maybe I was wrong about that, too. It doesn't mean that I'm not seething with jealousy over the fact that selfish, devious, backstabbing Hayley gets to be the one to give you something that no one else can, something that my ability to have was taken away from me without my consent. So yeah, you could say I'm upset. But like I said before, there's no point, so all I can do is accept it and move on."

"Caroline, this doesn't change anything for us," Klaus insisted. "My feelings for you have never changed, not when I was with Hayley, not when I found out about the baby, and not now. I'm still going to keep every promise I made you. You can still be my queen, and I'll still rip out the heart of anyone who tries to steal your throne from you."

Caroline let out another short, sarcastic laugh.

"I'm really glad your pesky love for me didn't stand in the way of you getting laid," she said bitterly. "But this does change everything. What happens when the person trying to 'steal my throne' is your child claiming its birthright? You are going to be a father, and your child has to be the most important thing in your life, not me. I was just coming to terms with the idea of being with you for the rest of my life, and now you're asking me to be stepmom to yours and Hayley's little miracle wolf pup, and I'm not ready for that right now. Between Hayley, the baby, and your siblings, there's no room for me. But you have to go back to New Orleans and face the consequences of your actions."

"It seems like the consequence of this is me losing you," Klaus said sadly.

"Then you'll lose me, and you'll have no choice but to live with that, just as I have no choice but to live with this," Caroline responded, not without a little compassion. "Or maybe I'm not yours to lose, and you never had me at all."

"I don't think that's true," Klaus replied.

"Neither do I," Caroline said quietly.

"You'll always have me," Klaus offered, a last ditch effort to get her to stay.

"I know," Caroline said, walking away, slamming the front door behind her to hide the sound of the tears she finally allowed herself to shed.

{ }

Klaus showed up at her front door later that day.

Caroline's mother was the one who opened the door, but since Caroline had gone straight into her room without saying anything when she arrived home, Liz invited Klaus inside warily when he asked to speak with Caroline, assuming that he had some sort of supernatural business to discuss.

In her room, Caroline was lying in her bed, curled up in a little ball, facing away from the door. She'd changed out of Rebekah's clothes into a similar outfit of her own, scrubbed off the remains of the previous day's makeup, and woven her blonde hair into a loose braid to get it off of her face.

"Elijah and I are returning to New Orleans tonight," Klaus told Caroline. "I was hoping that you might have changed your mind about coming with me."

Klaus remained in the doorway, not wanting to overwhelm her. Because of the way Caroline was curled in on herself, he could only see her braided hair, her red sweatshirt, and the waistband of her black leggings.

"I haven't," Caroline said flatly. "But if you could give Rebekah her clothes back, I would appreciate it. Thanks for the loan."

Caroline still hadn't turned around to face him, her voice muffled by her pillow as she spoke.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Hayley being pregnant," Klaus said.

"Would you have told me?" Caroline asked, pulling herself into a sitting position but still not facing him. "I mean, I'm sure I would have found out eventually, but would you have told me yourself, or would you have let someone else tell me, or would you have just shown up one day with a baby and said, 'hey, Caroline, you remember Hayley, the werewolf who unsired and betrayed all of the hybrids, then snapped your neck and left you in the Grill's restroom so that you couldn't interfere with her plan to have them all killed? We had a baby together, want to see?'"

"I was going to tell you," Klaus insisted. "With everything going on, with Silas, the cure, Elena and her humanity, graduation, you had enough on your plate already and I didn't want to add another burden. And then you agreed to come to New Orleans and I selfishly didn't want to risk you changing your mind. I wanted to wait for a time when I could tell you myself, without any other distractions or complications. I didn't want to hurt you," he explained.

"I've heard that before, a lot," Caroline shook her head with a sad smile. "My mom, my dad, Tyler, Stefan and Damon, Bonnie and Elena; they all didn't want to tell me things because they didn't want to hurt me, but that didn't stop them from doing the things that hurt me in the first place."

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Klaus said. "I wasn't thinking, not about you, not about anything. I acted on impulse, and I would give anything to go back and change it, but I can't."

"Okay," was all Caroline said in response.

"That's all you have to say?" Klaus asked.

"I said all I had to say this morning," Caroline told him. "If you're here to say goodbye, then, goodbye Klaus, have fun in New Orleans, good luck with the baby."

Klaus stepped further into the room, until he was right in front of Caroline. He held her chin in one of his hands, hoping to make her look at him, but Caroline turned her head as far as she could and looked away.

"Caroline, please look at me," Klaus entreated.

Caroline sighed and reluctantly looked at Klaus.

"I promise that I am going to find a way to make this right for you," Klaus said, his thumb stroking Caroline's cheekbone.

"You have a time machine?" Caroline asked sarcastically.

"Well, no," Klaus conceded.

"Then you can't 'make this right' for me, all you can do is move forward. Eventually, I will wrap my head around the shock of you having a child, and I will move forward as well," Caroline said.

"Without me," Klaus stated.

"I hope not," Caroline answered, surprising him.

"Really?" he sought confirmation.

"Yes," Caroline responded. "I told you that I wanted to be with you, that I wanted to go to New Orleans with you, what did you think I meant?"

"I just thought—" Klaus stopped himself. "You said that this changed everything, that you weren't ready to be with me because of the baby."

"I just need time," Caroline said. "I'll probably never like Hayley, and I'll probably never be thrilled that you're having a baby with her, but eventually I'll accept it. I like babies, so I don't see any reason why I wouldn't like yours, and I'll even try to tolerate Hayley now that she's going to be a part of your life for the next eighteen years, at least. I just need some space, to come to terms with this life-changing news, on my own. I will call you if I want to talk, I will visit you if I want to see you. But please leave me alone until I seek you out. I need some time to be a normal college student, not Queen of the Underworld, Klaus Mikaelson's girlfriend, stepmother to the miracle magic wolf baby. Okay?" she asked.

Klaus smiled softly and touched her face again.

"If that is what will make you happy," Klaus agreed.

"This is what I need right now," Caroline reiterated.

"Then let me say just one last thing," Klaus requested.

Caroline tilted her head slightly to the side. She was surprised that had relented so quickly when just yesterday he had told her that he would pursue her until she returned his feelings for her. But she was curious to know what Klaus needed to tell her before he left, so she nodded and gestured for him to proceed.

"I love you, Caroline Forbes, and I'm leaving my heart with you," Klaus vowed. "And I am going to let you have as much time as you need to live your normal, human life before you realize that you deserve more than that, and that you want more than that. I know that you aren't ready yet, but just know that there will always be a place for you in my life and in New Orleans for whenever you decide you want it. I am going to love you forever, Caroline, and I will wait however long it takes for you to love me, too."

Then Klaus slowly—so that Caroline would see what he was doing and could stop him if she wanted to—leaned in and very softly kissed Caroline. Klaus clearly wasn't expecting Caroline to kiss him back, and started to pull away after only a few seconds. Caroline, overwhelmed by Klaus's heartfelt, romantic speech, put one of her hands on his cheek and the other at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer to her and kissing him back passionately.

Caroline's only thought was that she had to get closer and closer to him. She needed his breath in her lungs, his heart beating against hers, his skin under her hands. She slid her hands under his shirt and pressed herself even closer along Klaus's body, and as she did so, her hips met his, causing Klaus's eyes to flash open. He gently shoved Caroline off of him, returning her to her sitting position at the edge of her bed.

"I can't, sweetheart, you deserve better than that," Klaus apologized.

Caroline pouted, curling back up into a ball like she had been when he first entered the room.

"I have to go, Elijah will be waiting for me," Klaus said quietly.

Caroline nodded.

"Have a safe trip," she offered feebly.

Klaus kissed Caroline's cheek.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear before he pulled away.

"Close your eyes."

Caroline squeezed her eyes shut without question, the first tears spilling out as she eyes closed, only opening them again when she heard the front door close behind him.

"I love you, too," Caroline whispered to her closed bedroom door.

Then she surrendered to her tears—heaving, heart-wrenching sobs that took on a rhythm of their own; a furious, thumping beat that echoed the sound of Klaus's heart.

{ }

He sent her roses on Valentine's Day.

She shouldn't have been surprised, she told herself, since he'd sent gifts for her birthday and Christmas. But for some reason the giant bouquet of flowers that was delivered that morning was haunting her from their perch on the kitchen counter.

Even without Caroline's extensive experience planning floral arrangements for town events, she would have known that red roses meant 'I love you.'

Klaus had been good about keeping up his end of their deal over the past nine months. He'd sent her a pendant necklace and matching earrings with her birthstone for her birthday in October, and he'd sent her a television and DVD player for her dorm room for Christmas, but other than that, he'd kept his promise not to contact her. He hadn't even replied to the thank you notes that she sent after receiving each gift.

She didn't know anything about New Orleans, or the baby, or Hayley. She'd tried to extricate Klaus from her life entirely so that she could have a normal college experience with her friends, but she just felt lonely and empty without him.

And she wasn't even having the normal college experience that she wanted. They'd had to deal with Silas, her best friend was now the anchor to the realm of the supernatural dead, and another friend had spent last summer stuffed in a safe. Elena was preoccupied most of the time with Damon, no one had heard from Tyler in months, and her contact with Matt had never been so infrequent, even when he was avoiding her because he couldn't get over that she was a vampire.

Caroline loved Valentine's Day, as she loved all holidays, so she'd given a card and some candy to each of her friends that morning to try to include them in her festive holiday spirit. They'd each offered a brief, 'Thanks, Care,' before going about their routine.

None of her friends had wished her a happy Valentine's Day in return, or acknowledged the effort she'd put into creating her valentines, but Klaus had sent her a dozen red roses, which meant 'I love you.' Because he did.

It was still early enough in the day that if she drove quickly and compelled herself out of any speeding tickets she might incur, it was still possible for her to make it to New Orleans before dark.

Caroline ran through her schedule for the day in her head. It was Thursday, she only had one class in the early afternoon, and no classes tomorrow.

Caroline rushed to her closet and began throwing a few days' worth of clothing in a suitcase. Skipping one general education math class wasn't the end of the world, was it?

She decided to change from the festive pink sweater with a giant red sequined heart on it and black velvet jeans she was wearing into the gold dress Klaus had bought for her, adding the bracelet he'd returned to her at graduation and the gold fleur-de-lis necklace he'd given her as well, then throwing her coat on top.

After she finished packing the essentials, she scrambled to leave a note for Bonnie and Elena, should they come back to the room to find her gone.

 _Dear Bonnie and Elena,_

 _I went to spend Valentine's Day with the man I love. I have my cell phone if you need me. I'll be back in a couple of days._  
 _Happy Valentine's Day!_

 _Love,_  
 _Care_

She scribbled her brief message and left it on Bonnie's pillow, assuming that she would be the first one to return to the room, since Elena was probably spending the day with Damon.

Then she grabbed her bag, her phone, and her keys, and ran out the door to her car, filled with a nervous, but excited energy that lasted the entire drive to New Orleans.

When Caroline arrived in the city, she drove straight to Klaus's house, and when Caroline realized that she already knew Klaus's address from the return address labels on the gifts he'd sent her, she had to give him credit for his multi-tasking scheme. He'd sent her gifts, primarily for the purpose of recognizing the occasion and showing that he was thinking of her, but also so that she would know where to find him.

She parked on the street in front of the house and walked up to the gate (of course Klaus lived in a house with a gate), and was about to try to pull the gate open when she spotted a keypad on the side of the gate. Surprised that Klaus would bother with a human security system, Caroline felt her hopes drop, suddenly uncertain of whether or not she would be able to see Klaus.

Not knowing any other four digit number that was important to Klaus, Caroline decided it was worth the risk to try her own birthday. When she typed the last zero, the gate sprang open, allowing her inside.

She found Klaus sitting with Elijah and Rebekah in a dining room on the first floor of the house. When she walked in, the immediately stopped talking and stared at her.

"Miss Forbes, what are you doing here?" Elijah asked, his surprised face out of place with his usually poised and controlled presence. "Niklaus, I told you that the code you picked for the gate was too easy to guess. 1010, honestly, you might as well have picked 1234."

"Sorry," Caroline said. "While my birthday does make a fun pick-up line, it doesn't make a great security code."

"Caroline, please forgive my siblings' intrusion, is there something you need? Do you need help, are you in trouble?" Klaus asked, seeming more and more worried as he spoke.

"I'm fine," Caroline assured him.

"I should go…" Elijah trailed off, sensing that Caroline wanted to speak to Klaus privately.

"Dote upon the werewolf? Of course that's where you'd rather be," Rebekah scoffed. "So just between us girls, Caroline, why are you here?" she asked, leaning forward.

"Rebekah!" Klaus scolded.

"Oh, I see how it is," Rebekah complained. "This is why you aren't my favorite brother."

"I'm crushed," Klaus deadpanned.

"You should be; my love is a blessing few receive," Rebekah retorted. "Don't even think about saying something crude. Bye, Caroline."

And with that, Rebekah flounced out of the room.

Klaus looked expectantly at Caroline.

"Thank you for the flowers," she started awkwardly, sitting across from Klaus at the table.

"You're welcome," Klaus said, equally uncertainly. "But I'm sure that a bouquet of flowers wasn't enough of a reason to drive to New Orleans to see me in person."

"Why shouldn't it be?" Caroline asked, stalling. "But while I'm here, there are certain residents of Mystic Falls who are concerned that you don't appear to have used the cure. The longer you have the cure in your possession, the more they worry that you're planning to use it against them."

"I'm saving the cure as part of a contingency plan," Klaus answered. "The baby that Hayley is carrying has the ability to create hybrids. If Hayley were to die in childbirth, she would have the baby's blood in her system and be reborn as a hybrid. As a werewolf, Hayley hates vampires and has no desire to be one, and I have no desire for her to live forever. Therefore, if that happens, we've planned for Hayley to complete the transition, then immediately take the cure and return to being an ordinary, if not more annoying than average, werewolf," he explained.

"Where is Hayley? From the sound of your plan and the fact that I don't see a baby in the house, I assume that she hasn't given birth yet, but she must be due soon, right?" Caroline wondered.

"No, she has not," Klaus confirmed. "She found her wolf pack, and she has been staying with them ever since—making up for lost time, bonding with the other members of the pack, that sort of thing. It turns out that she is part of the royal family, such that it is, of the wolf pack, so they've been welcoming, and far more hospitable than I would have been if she had to live here, I can tell you that."

"Hayley is the Queen of the Werewolves, is she?" Caroline chuckled. "That figures. There's a magic loophole that allows you to procreate with a werewolf, and of course you'd go for the queen. Do you know if you two are having a little wolf prince or a wolf princess?" she asked.

"It's a girl," Klaus answered.

"Klaus Mikaelson with a baby girl; I assume you've already ordered bars for her windows?" Caroline teased. "Seriously though, I think having a girl will be good for you. You might eventually become rivals with a son, but with a daughter, I think your first instinct would be to protect her, no matter how powerful she gets."

"I appreciate your faith in me," Klaus said sincerely.

"Well, I've never actually been a parent, so what do I know, but I'm pretty sure the most important thing is just to love your child and be there for them," Caroline offered.

"She'll need you," Klaus announced. "She'll need someone in her life who can show her how to be good, and strong, and compassionate, and light. Human."

"Will she be?" Caroline asked. "Human, I mean. Just because of what you are…"

"She'll be a werewolf, because she'll have inherited the werewolf gene from both her parents," Klaus glanced at Caroline apologetically. "Caroline, not that I'm not thrilled you're here, but just based on your reaction to finding out about her, I'm sure that you didn't come here to discuss my daughter?"

Caroline was stunned for a moment, still taken aback by hearing the words 'my daughter' come out of Klaus's mouth.

"I think you were right when you said that she would need me," Caroline started. "Between Hayley ruling her werewolf pack, and you trying to rule the world, I think she's going to need someone around who doesn't have huge supernatural responsibilities and goals, or enemies. I know that I'm not her parent—that's yours and Hayley's job, and I don't want to interfere if I'm not needed or wanted, but if between your family and Hayley's wolf pack there's room for me, I'd like to help."

Now it was Klaus's turn to be stunned.

"I appreciate that, Caroline, and you know that there is nothing I would like more than to have you here, but I can't let you give up your entire life just because Hayley and I are sure to be terrible parents."

"I didn't spent my entire day in the car, on Valentine's Day no less, just to drop by and say 'if you ever need a babysitter, call me,'" Caroline reached across the table for Klaus's hands, lacing their fingers together. "I'm here because I want to be here. I'm here because you sent me roses for Valentine's Day, without expecting anything in return, but when I prepared Valentine's gifts for my friends, I got a halfhearted thank you at most before they all moved on with their day. I'm here because when I left this morning, I left a note for Elena and Bonnie because they weren't there, and I haven't gotten a single text message from Elena, which means she hasn't even noticed I'm gone yet, because she'd be furious if she knew I was here. I'm here because I've felt so lonely without you around, even when I wanted to be upset with you, so I applied to some of the universities in New Orleans so that I could transfer and stay here with you. I'm here because you aren't the first person to leave me, but you are the first to seem like it was hurting you to walk away. I'm here because you sending me flowers that mean 'I love you' reminded me that you love me, because you loved me enough to walk away when I asked you to, so you can't tell me every day like I know you want to. I'm not here because she needs me, I'm here because I want you," Caroline finished, taking a deep breath and looking up at Klaus.

Klaus's lips twitched like he wanted to smile, his hands twitched like he wanted to hold hers, but he held himself back, refusing to let his guard down for fear that anything he did might wake him from the wonderful dream he was having, because he was convinced that this moment couldn't possibly be real, that he couldn't really be sitting in the dining room of his house in New Orleans, across from the love of his life as she told him that she wanted to be with him.

"I tried to tell you before you left, but then you made me close my eyes so I wouldn't have to watch you leave, and then you were gone before I could even realize what you were doing, so I want to make sure I get to tell you now," Caroline paused, steeling herself for what she was about to say. "I love you, Klaus."

A year ago, Caroline could have never imagined a scenario in which she would tell Klaus she loved him and honestly mean it, but now she couldn't imagine a scenario in which she didn't love Klaus, in which telling him she loved him didn't feel as natural as saying hello to a friend. She expected to feel nervous before she said it, and like her entire life had changed forever after she said it, but she felt completely calm—a challenging feat for someone as high-strung as she was.

Then, somehow, so quickly that she didn't even notice she was moving, Klaus had pressed Caroline up against the far wall of the room, holding her in place with his body, one of his hands on her hip and the other wrapped in her hair. He was holding her so close that Caroline could feel his heart thumping against her chest, his breath hitting her face.

"Do you really mean that?" Klaus asked, his voice tight and raspy from holding back emotion, but his eyes betrayed the joy that Caroline's words had inspired in him.

"I do," Caroline answered, giving him a sweet smile that showed that she'd deliberately chosen those words.

Klaus pounced on her like the wolf he was. He kissed her fiercely, pulling her even closer to him, so that the entire length of her body was pressed against his, leaving no space between them. Caroline kissed him back just as passionately, wrapping her arms around his neck, one of her hands reaching up to tangle itself in the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him closer and keeping his lips on hers.

Minutes later, they finally broke apart, both gasping for breath.

"I love you," Klaus whispered to Caroline as he pressed kisses along the length of her neck.

"I love you," Caroline sighed out in response, blissfully happy both from his words and from the way she felt so safe and cherished in Klaus's arms.

Klaus pulled back so he could look into Caroline's eyes.

"She's going to love you, almost as much as I do," Klaus said sincerely. "You're going to be her favorite person in the whole world. What can I offer a child, except my best attempts at protection? Hayley will teach her how to be a wolf; how to be a strong, tough young woman who can withstand the aggression and the transformations, but that will be many years off, if I can help it. But you will teach her how to be kind, and loving, and honest; how to be a good friend, and a devoted daughter."

"How to get her daddy to buy us both diamonds," Caroline added with a mischievous smile.

Klaus gently stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"All you've ever had to do was ask," he told her. "There's something I want to show you."

Klaus led Caroline upstairs to a balcony that overlooked the French Quarter, but on a clear day, most of the city was visible. The sun was setting, casting a golden light over all of the city that she could see. She could see people walking along the sidewalks below her, and she could hear jazz music—a trumpet here, a saxophone there—float towards her on the wind, and she could smell warm pastries baking and fish frying.

Caroline was awestruck by the view. After a few minutes, though, she turned to Klaus and asked, "What exactly am I looking at?"

"Our kingdom, my love," Klaus answered.

Caroline laughed and rolled her eyes.

"I should have known that roses would be a far too low-key and mainstream Valentine's Day gift for you," Caroline teased.

"Well, Happy Valentine's Day, and welcome to New Orleans, my queen," Klaus pronounced formally, wrapping his arms around her and leaning in for another kiss.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading, and Happy Valentine's Day!  
I would love to know what you thought, so please leave a review; I love reading them!  
lots of love,  
charlotte


	2. your skin makes me cry

Hello lovely readers!

For this year's Klaroline Vacation Gift Exchange, I wrote a Klaroline Sense 8 AU. It was quite a daunting challenge, since I'd never written an AU before, or watched Sense 8, but I ended up being happy with how it turned out!

A few things I think you should know before you read:  
-I've never actually seen Sense 8, so I sincerely apologize for any mistakes and inaccuracies. I did a lot of research, and I really tried to respectfully adapt the show to this format, but of course, due to time and length constraints, I had to reorder, condense, adapt, and omit some things.  
-For the purposes of this story, all of the characters are human (well, that is to say, they aren't vampires, witches, etc.), and the Mikaelsons are not related.  
-Some characters are closer than others, but the TVD/TO characters don't precisely match up with the Sense 8 characters, especially since Sense 8 has been praised for the diversity of its cast of characters, while the other shows-not so much. I decided to err on the side of keeping the TVD and TO characters in character rather than changing them dramatically to make them exactly like the Sense 8 characters. I hope that's okay!

The title of this story comes from Radiohead's "Creep," which I thought was fitting with the content of the story and as a reference to recent Klaroline scenes.

Happy reading!

* * *

The first time it happened to Caroline, she was talking and giggling with her best friend Elena while they watched one of their favorite movies and painted their nails, when all of a sudden, she was almost deafened by the sound of rapid gunfire that was completely out of place in the scene of the Prime Minister dancing.

"Did you hear that?" Caroline asked Elena.

"Hear what?" Elena asked innocently.

Caroline shook her head, trying to clear her head of her confused thoughts like she had erased her Etch-a-Sketch as a child.

"Nothing, I just thought I heard a car alarm outside," Caroline lied, forcing a smile in the hopes that it would keep Elena from getting suspicious.

Elena smiled back.

"No, I didn't hear it," she repeated, then turned her attention back to the movie.

Caroline mentally berated herself. Of course she hadn't really heard gunshots. This was Mystic Falls! There was no crime in this sleepy little town! The only person who might possibly have any reason to fire a gun was Caroline's mother, and even then, it was at the shooting range to keep her shooting skills sharp, just in case Liz ever actually needed to use her weapon on the job.

Caroline looked down at her hands, first at the bubblegum pink nail polish she was painting on her nails, then at her engagement ring, a simple heart-shaped solitaire on a white gold band. When her fiancé had given it to her, he'd praised himself repeatedly for finding a ring that so perfectly matched her sweet, girly personality.

If anyone knew the ins and outs of Mystic Falls, it would be Caroline: the daughter of the sheriff and the future wife of the mayor's son.

She didn't know why she had, but she knew that she must have imagined the sound of gunshots. It must have been the stress of the upcoming wedding, or too much sugar, or perhaps she was coming down with a migraine.

But even as she told herself that, she couldn't shake the feeling that something very unusual was happening to her.

{ }

The first time it happened to Klaus, he was in the middle of a job that was all going according to plan until he was suddenly inundated by a strange chemical smell that he couldn't identify.

And in his line of work, strange chemical smells were very bad news.

"Do you smell that?" Klaus asked his associate Marcel.

"What?" Marcel yelled over the gunfire surrounding them.

"There's this sort of chemical smell; do you smell that?" Klaus repeated.

"I don't smell anything, sorry, man," Marcel answered.

Klaus shrugged, and decided to deal with this the same way he dealt with all of his problems: ignore it and hope that it went away on its own.

Besides, if he got worked up over every weird thing that he saw, or heard, or smelled on the job, he would never know a moment's peace.

Klaus didn't work a cushy nine-to-five job, and he didn't even have an official job description. He had never sat for an interview or sent out a resume, yet the people who wanted to hire someone to do their dirty work, especially when it wasn't quite legal, always managed to find him.

This particular job had involved stealing a flash drive from a safe. He didn't know what was on the flash drive, or even who owned the safe, but he didn't ask questions.

Except now he was being shot at by the owner's security guard, and he could smell a chemical in the air that could be some sort of airborne poison for all he knew, so he was starting to reconsider his 'ask no questions' policy.

He and Marcel, the closest thing Klaus had to a friend—mostly due to their continued proximity, since Klaus wasn't exactly the friendly type—made it back to their car unscathed, but the smell persisted.

"You really don't smell that?" Klaus asked again.

"I don't smell anything," Marcel repeated.

"I'm sure it's nothing," Klaus shrugged, trying to convince himself more than Marcel.

Sure enough, the smell inexplicably disappeared a few minutes later.

It wasn't until the next day, on his way back home from delivering the flash drive to the client, that he identified the smell as the same one wafting out of the nail salon he was walking past.

{ }

The first time it happened to Elijah, he was at home, cooking dinner alone.

Elijah was resigned to his bachelor lifestyle after years of being married to his job. He was used to being alone whenever he wasn't at work, and it had even stopped bothering him. He was happier being alone than he would be if he tried to force himself to be social.

He dumped some pasta into a pot of boiling water and set the timer, then wandered over to the refrigerator to take out a head of broccoli.

He walked over to the stove to turn on another burner, before moving to the sink and mindlessly rinsing and chopping and filling a pot, but when he turned back to the stove, he was distracted by the sudden flashes of strobe lights.

Elijah blinked furiously, certain his eyes were playing tricks on him after a long, exhausting day at work. The lights made him feel dizzy and disoriented, and he tried to ground himself by putting his hand down.

But since he accidentally put his hand down on the stove, he ended up burning his hand in the process.

He swore loudly, immediately running his hand under cold water.

The lights were still reflected in the window above the sink, which didn't make any sense to Elijah.

He was a man of facts, and logic, and reason. He worked in law enforcement; he believed in following the rules, and bold lines between right and wrong that could never be crossed.

His world was black and white, with no room for mysterious flashing lights that appeared out of nowhere.

In the darkness, he couldn't see outside, but one of the neighbors must be throwing a party, though why they were throwing a party on a Tuesday night, he wasn't sure. Perhaps that was the latest trend in parties, not that he would know.

There was a logical explanation for what had happened.

There had to be.

And Elijah was going to find it.

{ }

The first time it happened to Katherine, she was in the club, letting the loud music drown out her thoughts, so that nothing existed but the thumping bass that synced up with her heartbeat.

Then she felt acute pain in her left hand, as if it has been burned.

At first, she ignored it, writing it off as a drunken illusion, but when the pain didn't fade, she was forced to admit that it was real.

So she ordered another drink, hoping that the more alcohol was in her system, the less pain she would feel.

It hadn't yet worked to numb her emotional pain, but she still thought she'd give it a try to numb the physical pain.

She looked down at her hand. It didn't look burned. So she couldn't figure out why it hurt, when there was no evidence of an injury.

"What's wrong with you, you look like someone died?" a loud, boisterous voice asked.

Hayley was an acquaintance, Katherine supposed. They weren't really friends because neither of them wanted to be friends, but they hung out at the same clubs and ran with the same crowd, so they saw each other more than either of them would probably choose to of their own volition.

"I'm fine," Katherine answered, knowing that Hayley wouldn't press any further. She wasn't exactly the caring, concerned friend type.

From what Katherine knew of the other girl's history, it wasn't much better than hers. Both of them had been kicked out by their parents, both because of poor decisions they'd made regarding the men in their lives during their teenage years. She'd had a tough life, and she covered up her pain and loneliness underneath a thick veneer of aggression and belligerence. She acted tough, but like Katherine, she was just hiding her demons and hoping that no one got close enough to see them.

"Okay," Hayley shrugged, tugging uncomfortably at the hem of her olive green crop top.

"I'm fine," Katherine repeated to herself after Hayley walked away. "I'm fine."

{ }

The first time it happened to Rebekah, she almost humiliated herself in front of the CEO of the company. She was the youngest chief marketing officer in the company's history, and she was at risk of losing that position after making a fool of herself at the monthly board meeting. One moment, Rebekah was casually taking a sip of her coffee while listening to the chief financial officer's presentation on revenue for the quarter, and the next moment, she was sputtering on what inexplicably tasted like a strawberry milkshake.

Everyone sitting around the table stopped to stare at her.

"I am so sorry, it just went down the wrong pipe; I'm sorry," Rebekah apologized through the fake smile she plastered on her face.

The other board members, primarily white men at least fifty years old, looked dismissively accepting of her excuse, and continued the meeting without giving her another thought.

Rebekah took another tentative sip of her coffee, finding to her dismay that it still did not taste like the coffee she was expecting.

Looking into her coffee mug, Rebekah saw that the liquid it contained still looked like coffee, and still smelled like coffee, and through the mug, she could even still feel the warmth of what must be coffee.

But when she took a sip, the coffee mysteriously, inexplicably, became a strawberry milkshake in the process.

It wasn't that Rebekah didn't like strawberry milkshakes—because she did, actually—it was that they were a completely different consistency and temperature than the coffee she wanted to be drinking during a board meeting taking place at nine in the morning on a Monday.

Rebekah had a demanding job that required her to be at the top of her game. She could not afford to waste valuable time and energy trying to figure out why her coffee did not taste like coffee.

She would give up coffee if she had to before she allowed this conundrum to distract her from her work.

But she would really rather not.

{ }

The first time it happened to Stefan, he nearly died. He was driving downtown, hoping that someone would signal for a ride, when he saw a man appear out of nowhere in front of his cab.

Stefan immediately slammed on his brakes, not that anyone would notice in the rush hour traffic that he had completely stopped moving. Still, the sudden movement sent him falling forward against his seatbelt as he breathed heavily, relieved at having narrowly avoided a head-on collision with a man that he could have sworn wasn't there a moment ago.

The man appeared to be about fifty years old, not old enough that Stefan would assume he had dementia, or any other problems related to memory loss. In fact, he seemed to be quite attentive to something, just not the busy street he had walked into.

All around him, horns were honking and people were yelling, but as Stefan continued to look at him, the man gave no reaction that showed that he heard any of it.

Stefan looked around at the traffic, quickly coming to the conclusion that no one would be moving for a while, so he decided to get out of the car and check on the man who was standing in the street.

But by the time Stefan walked around to the front of the cab, the man had disappeared.

Stefan turned around in a circle, but the man was nowhere to be found, even though he couldn't have possibly gotten far enough away that he couldn't be seen in the few seconds it had taken Stefan to get out of the car.

Another cab driver yelled at him for standing in the middle of the street. Stefan waved apologetically and got back into his car, still very curious and concerned over the mystery man.

As he was contemplating what might have happened, Stefan's brother Damon called him, asking where he was. Stefan quickly answered that he was working and ended the call as soon as he could, wanting to get back to his speculations.

Either he was seeing people who didn't really exist, or a person who was potentially a danger to himself and others was wandering around one of the largest cities in the world unattended.

Either way, Stefan was worried.

{ }

The first time it happened to Kol, he was home early from work and was just getting ready to take a shower when the sounds of car horns and sirens close by made him worried that there was an emergency in the vicinity.

He quickly redressed and ran outside to see what was happening.

But after several minutes exploring the parking lot of the apartment complex he lived in, he couldn't see any sort of commotion that would create the noise that he was hearing. There were only a few cars that were actually moving, and none were going fast enough to warrant honking at each other. There wasn't any sort of accident that would require emergency services.

Deciding that whatever he heard must be far enough away that he couldn't see anything, Kol decided to return home and just try to tune out the noise, since he could see that he wasn't in any danger.

As he walked back towards his apartment, Kol wondered what had caused so much noise, even though the parking lot was nearly empty and the street was calm.

He was so distracted by his own thoughts that he tripped over the curb. He landed on his hands when he fell, though fortunately, his hands didn't appear bloody, just dirty from landing on the pavement.

Kol looked around to make sure that no one saw his embarrassing lack of coordination, but he didn't see anyone, much to his relief.

He washed his hands once he returned to his apartment, looked at his own confused face in the mirror, and decided the sounds of heavy traffic that were out of place with his surroundings were simply not his concern.

He was going to continue with his plans for the evening, which had already been postponed thanks to his random impulse to play Sherlock Holmes.

It was as if deciding to leave well enough alone was the solution to his problem, because as soon as Kol started to ignore the noise, it stopped.

{ }

The first time it happened to Bonnie, she was almost too tired to even notice.

Wanting to unwind after a busy week with the help of comfort food, Bonnie walked to the diner that she'd found by chance on the day that she'd moved to the city, sitting at the counter and ordering a strawberry milkshake and French fries.

She took a long sip of her milkshake as soon as the waitress set it down in front of her, hoping that the cold rush of sugar would make her feel a little more alert.

Then once they arrived, she slowly ate her fries one by one, not in any hurry to go back home.

Bonnie loved her job, and she loved going to work every day. After studying computer science and sociology in college, developing language-learning software for children was a perfect fit for her, and she found the job rewarding and stimulating.

But it was also a lot of work and a lot of pressure.

The idea of knowing that thousands of children would use the program that she helped create to learn a new language and learn about the culture of another country was gratifying, but it was also a tremendous responsibility.

Just that week, she'd had to deal with a crisis involving a coworker accidentally using the wrong flag, meaning that she'd had to replace the image with the correct one on every page, which had taken her the better part of three days. The coworker in question had been taken off the project as a consequence for his mistake, which meant that Bonnie had had to fix it all by herself. She was fairly certain that after the many stressful hours she'd spent staring at her computer screen, her vision would never fully recuperate.

So when she experienced the peculiar sensation of falling forward onto the counter, she simply reasoned that she must have been more tired than she thought.

Her only response was to finish her fries and her shake, pay for her food, and walk home.

{ }

For the next month, they all pretended that everything was normal, and that nothing had changed.

When the wedding cake sample that Caroline was testing suddenly tasted like day-old Chinese food, she chalked it up to pre-wedding stress. When Klaus was caught off guard by the feeling of someone tightly fastening what felt like an extraordinarily heavy piece of clothing around his waist, he ignored it. When Elijah repeatedly heard the heavy bass beat of an unfamiliar techno song in the middle of the night, he wrote it off as exhaustion. When the strong smell of coffee appeared under Katherine's nose, she blamed her next door neighbors and the thin walls of her cheap apartment. When Rebekah smelled car exhaust while she was working, her only response was to ask her assistant if she smelled it too. When Stefan heard the tapping sound of typing on a computer keyboard, he convinced himself it was actually his passenger's cell phone. When Kol heard the irritating click of high heels striking a hard floor when he was alone in his carpeted apartment, he tuned it out. When Bonnie saw a warped reflection of a dark-haired man in her computer screen, she blinked rapidly and resolved to go to sleep early that night.

But pretending nothing out of the ordinary was happening, didn't change the fact that these eight people were suddenly sensing things that they hadn't before.

{ }

Then came the dream.

She was one of eight people in what looked like an ordinary apartment. They were looking for something, but she wasn't sure what it was.

She was rifling through a set drawers, while a gorgeous blonde woman about her age looked through a closet, and a handsome man a few years older searched under the bed. She could hear other people investigating kitchen cabinets, the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, the bookshelf in the living room.

She could feel eyes watching her, searching, though what they were hoping to see, she didn't know. She wasn't the one hiding whatever it was they were looking for, and surely she wasn't compelling enough to serve as a distraction from their mission.

"There has to be something here!" a voice she didn't recognize insisted.

It was urgent, whatever they were doing, whatever they were looking for. It was important that they find it quickly, perhaps even a matter of life and death…

Caroline woke up, gasping for breath.

Her dream had felt so real that she was almost surprised to find herself in her own bed at home alone instead of in the mysterious apartment she'd been imagining with the strangers that had seemed so familiar inside her own mind.

Unlike most of her dreams, the one she'd just had didn't fade away as soon as she was fully awake. The image of the apartment lingered, only serving to make Caroline more sure that whatever her dream self had been doing there, it was important. She just still wasn't sure what it was.

And she wasn't sure where the apartment was, or who the people in it were, but something, some voice inside her head, some instinct, told her that it was imperative that she find them, that she make the scene in her dream a reality.

{ }

Elijah was the first one to find the apartment.

He had responded to a noise complaint and was on his way back to the police station when he felt pulled in another direction. Almost subconsciously, he turned right instead of continuing towards his original destination.

He pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex he'd never been to before, parked his car, and allowed the strange sense that had led him there guide him. He didn't typically believe in things like that: destiny, fate, kismet. They were different words that all meant the same thing: that people were somehow not responsible for their own actions, that some external force was pulling the strings behind the scenes. Believing in that idea seemed very passive to Elijah, like they were just allowing things to happen to them instead of taking the initiative to make their own decisions and control their own lives.

Nevertheless, as much as he disliked the situation he had now found himself in, Elijah traipsed across the apartment complex to a second-story unit in the back, away from the street, facing a walking path that bordered a creek that was all but dried up.

He held his badge in one hand and drew his gun from its holster on his hip with the other, preparing to kick open the door if necessary.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" Elijah called out.

There was no response.

"This is the police, open the door!" Elijah ordered.

Still, there was no response.

On an impulse, (and gut instinct was completely different than fate or serendipity in Elijah's book) Elijah tried the door, finding it unlocked.

Gun still raised, Elijah opened the door and stepped inside.

A quick scan of the apartment's few rooms showed that no one was home, and no one had been for quite a while. The apartment seemed to have been abandoned in a rush, if the amount of belongings left behind was any indication. There was a television and a bookshelf crammed with books in the living room, a closet full of clothes in the bedroom, and a medicine cabinet fully stocked with toiletries in the bathroom.

Elijah checked the refrigerator, hoping to gauge when the apartment was last occupied by the expiration dates on whatever food might remain there. All he found was an almost empty carton of milk that had expired three weeks earlier and half of a loaf of bread whose best sell by date was almost a month ago.

Naturally, Elijah was suspicious. Whoever had been living in this apartment had vacated it about a month ago—around the same time that strange things had started happening to him. It was too much of a coincidence for them to not be related somehow.

He had just started to look around the apartment again when his radio summoned him to another call, forcing him to postpone his mission, but he resolved to return when the next time he had free time.

Less than forty-eight hours later, Elijah was back in the apartment, searching through file cabinet, when the front door opened.

Elijah stood, drawing his gun as he moved closer to the door.

Standing in the doorway was a beautiful brunette, tall and thin, wearing tight black pants, tall black boots, and a black leather jacket. She was carrying an overstuffed duffel bag that looked like it had seen better days, her long curly hair was mussed, and her eyeliner was smudged, all things that suggested that she'd had a long day of travel prior to arriving there.

The young woman (Elijah estimated that she was in her early twenties) slowly raised her hands, dropping her bag to the floor in the process.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Elijah asked.

"Well, my name's Katherine," she answered. "And I don't really know what I'm doing here? I saw this place in a dream, as weird as that sounds, and the next thing I knew, I was on a plane. I don't even really know how I ended up here, because I didn't have the address, but it was like something pulled me here."

"That's what happened to me, too," Elijah offered, lowering his gun. "I had the same dream, and I was pulled here to this apartment."

"That's not even the only weird thing that's happened to me lately," Katherine continued. "About a month ago, I was out, and all of a sudden, my hand felt like it had been burned, but it hadn't. I wasn't standing anywhere near a stove or anything, so I couldn't have actually burned myself, it just felt like I did."

Elijah was stunned. This was impossible, fantastical, far outside the realm of logical thought…

"You're the girl who throws the parties," he stated. "I've been seeing your lights and hearing your music for weeks. The first time it happened, it startled me so much that I accidentally put my hand down on the stove to steady myself, burning my hand in the process. You've been inside my head, and it seems that you've been in mine."

"Well, if we've already gotten that up close and personal, then you should at least tell me your name," Katherine smirked.

"I'm Elijah."

"Elijah," Katherine started tentatively. "What if there are more of us? What if there are more people who have been inside our heads?"

"I honestly don't know," Elijah confessed. "Yesterday I would have said the entire concept was impossible, but our experiences are evidence that it isn't."

"Well, then," Katherine said. "We should make it as easy for them to find us as we can."

And she grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and wrote the address of the apartment in large, clear handwriting, then taped the paper to the living room wall.

{ }

Within the next week, they all appeared, one by one.

They came from a small town in Virginia, New York City, New Orleans. Los Angeles, London, Sydney.

Upon arrival, as soon as they put their luggage down, they were all quizzed on the odd things that had happened to them over the past month. Once they'd regaled Elijah and Katherine with the strange sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings they'd experienced, they were allowed in and accepted into the fold.

There was a lot that they still didn't know. But at least they knew that they weren't alone.

{ }

Caroline was the first to arrive.

She'd had another dream of the mysterious apartment, except this time, there were only two people in it: a girl about her age, and a man who looked like he was at least five years older. They were sitting on a couch, and on the wall above them was an address, handwritten on a piece of paper.

The address was in Chicago.

A quick internet search when Caroline woke up told her that Chicago was only an approximately two-hour flight away.

Since curiosity would kill Caroline just as surely as it killed the cat, she made up a story for her mother and Tyler, both of whose eyes glazed over when she started discussing wedding planning, which made convincing them of her lie much easier, and boarded a flight bound for Chicago that same day.

Once she landed at the airport, she took a taxi to the address she'd copied down from memory after seeing it in her dream.

The apartment complex the cab driver took her to was old and run-down, with peeling layers of beige paint and ill-maintained shrubs planted in a half-hearted attempt to give residents of the ground level some privacy from the street.

Caroline paid and thanked the driver, then trudged upstairs with her luggage to the apartment number she was looking for.

When she knocked on the door, the brunette from her dream opened it and led Caroline into the living room.

"So," the girl asked. "How did you end up here?"

Caroline was surprised by her forwardness, but decided to answer her question honestly. It wasn't like she had anything to lose. She had flown to a city she'd never been to before, because she'd seen the apartment she was now standing in in a dream. She doubted her story could get any stranger.

"I saw this apartment in a dream," Caroline replied. "The first time, there were eight people here, looking for something. The second time, it was just the two of you, sitting in this room. My curiosity got the better of me and I decided I had to come find out for myself why I was seeing this place in my dreams."

"And has anything else inexplicably strange happened to you, say, in the last month or so?" the girl asked.

"Yes, actually," Caroline answered, describing the time she'd heard gunshots when there weren't any, and when her wedding cake had tasted like Chinese food, and all of the other random occasions when her senses seemed to have gone haywire.

"Yay, you passed the test," the girl cheered with sarcastic enthusiasm. "I'm Katherine, and that's Elijah," she pointed to the man who had watching her suspiciously, silent and stony-faced, the entire time she'd been in the apartment.

"I'm Caroline," Caroline introduced herself.

"Welcome to the home of the crazies, Caroline," Katherine replied. "We're still trying to figure out how and why we end up in each other's heads. Any thoughts? Also, how old are you, and where are you from, and what sort of job do you have that allows you to fly to Chicago on a whim, on a Thursday?"

"I'm twenty-two, I'm from a very small town in Virginia called Mystic Falls, and I don't have a job at the moment," Caroline answered. "I'm planning my wedding, and my fiancé and I want to start a family soon after we get married, so our plan is for me to be a housewife and a mother, and since he proposed right after I graduated from college, there was really no point in getting a job just to quit it a few months later."

Katherine pressed her lips together in a thin line.

"And is he going to make you wear pearls while you vacuum, Donna Reed?" she asked sarcastically.

"It isn't like that," Caroline insisted. When Katherine raised her eyebrows skeptically, she elaborated. "He didn't manipulate me into anything; I knew what I was getting myself into. He's the son of the mayor, and he has political aspirations of his own, so he needs a supportive wife who will take care of the household and the children for him. We've been dating since high school, and our parents are close friends, so we've known each other our entire lives. I've always known what to expect, and I agreed to it. This is good for me. It's safe, and comfortable, and best of all, it's with someone who really cares about me. Small town life may not be enough for you, but it's enough for me."

Katherine's jaw fell open with surprise or excitement, Caroline couldn't really tell.

"You don't love him."

"What? Of course I love Tyler; I wouldn't have agreed to marry him if I didn't," Caroline retorted. "And, no offense, but you're kind of a complete stranger, so I'm not exactly comfortable defending my relationship to you."

"Come on," Katherine whined. "Mr. Grumpy Face over there isn't exactly one for girl talk. Please have pity on me."

Caroline chuckled.

"I love my fiancé, Katherine," Caroline repeated.

"That actually brings up a good point that we should ask everyone else when they arrive," Elijah spoke up.

"Whether or not they love their fiancés?" Katherine questioned. "I maintain that she doesn't, for the record. No one refers to the love of their live as someone 'safe, and comfortable,' who 'really cares about them.'"

"No, whether or not they've told anyone—a significant other, parents, siblings, friends, coworkers—about our new… abilities," Elijah explained.

"I haven't," Caroline was quick to chime in. "My mother and Tyler know that I'm in Chicago, but I told them it was because I found a dress online that's only sold in a boutique in the city."

Katherine and Elijah immediately confirmed that they hadn't told anyone either.

"And now we just wait for someone else to show up," Katherine announced. "So tell me all about your wedding."

{ }

Caroline was the only one awake when he arrived.

On Friday night, they'd welcomed two new arrivals: Stefan and Bonnie, who had caught red-eyes from New York City and New Orleans, respectively, after work that evening.

They'd shown up within an hour of each other, each of them waking Caroline from her sleep. Since none of them wanted to miss anything, they'd all refused to waste money on a hotel room they wouldn't use, so they'd taken to sleeping in the living room. Caroline made herself comfortable curled up in the armchair, Katherine had claimed the couch, and Elijah had acquired sleeping bags and air mattresses for himself and everyone else who would come.

After Bonnie and then Stefan had successfully completed Katherine's interrogation, they'd gone to sleep, apologizing but explaining that they'd had stressful weeks at work and tiring journeys that evening.

So when there was a knock at the door a little after 6:00 the next morning, they both slept through it, as did Katherine and Elijah, who Caroline had learned were the furthest thing from morning people she'd ever known.

Naturally an early riser, Caroline was awake already, and nervously approached the door to see who had arrived.

"Hello, love," a handsome man greeted her with a sly grin as she opened the door, his eyes rather obviously scanning the length of her body before returning to her face.

"Um, hi," Caroline replied. She wasn't sure why, but she'd been expecting a woman. A woman would have been far easier for her to question than this man, who was attractive and had so blatantly checked her out and seemed so dangerous, not just because there was something about him that seemed so compelling to her, but because his posture, the calluses on his hands, his leather jacket and beat-up duffle bag, all told Caroline that he was someone who could do some serious damage if he was provoked.

"I have to ask you a couple of questions," Caroline told him.

"Neither, actually, at the moment," he smirked.

Caroline couldn't help herself—she felt her eyes lower.

When she forced herself to look back up, his grin had widened.

"Those questions did not include anything about your underwear preferences, or why you would confess that you weren't wearing any underwear to a complete stranger, or what would possess a person to go through airport security while not wearing underwear!" Caroline exclaimed shrilly.

"Fine. What do you want to ask me?"

"How did you find this place?" Caroline asked.

"I saw it," he answered. "Inside my head. The night before last, I saw it and I decided that I needed to see it in person, so I got on a plane yesterday, and now here I am."

"And have you seen anything else strange in the past month? Anything that seemed odd to you, that you couldn't explain?" Caroline asked.

"A few times," he nodded. "Once, I was at work, and I smell this weird chemical sort of smell, but my partner couldn't smell it. I thought it might be dangerous at first, but it went away on its own, and I figured out the next day that it was nail polish that I'd smelled. Another time, I was at home, eating dinner, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I feel like I'm being squeezed into one of those things that rich ladies had on their dresses during the Middle Ages."

"A corset?" Caroline supplied.

"Sure," he agreed.

"Have you told anyone about these instances?" Caroline asked.

"No, of course not. No one would believe me, and anyone who did would think I was crazy."

"Then what is your name, where are you from, and were you being shot at, or were you the one doing the shooting?"

"You've got fire in you, I like it." He grinned. "You can call me Klaus, I live in London, and the shots you heard were coming at me, not from me."

Klaus. It was a rather uncommon name, but somehow it suited him. There was something unique about him that Caroline couldn't put her finger on, something sharper and more intense than anyone else she knew.

"Why were you being shot at?" Caroline asked.

"I was just doing my job, and they didn't really like that," Klaus said.

"What kind of job do you have where people shoot at you for doing it?" Caroline questioned.

"Oh, princess, you don't want to know," Klaus smirked.

"Don't call me princess," Caroline snapped.

"Okay, sweetheart."

"Don't call me that either."

"Then what should I call you? I don't know your name," Klaus pointed out.

Caroline flushed. She didn't like being outsmarted, especially not by people who didn't know her and didn't know that she wasn't just a pretty blonde airhead.

"I'm Caroline."

"Well, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, sweet Caroline," Klaus replied.

"Wow, so original!" Caroline mocked. "No one's ever called me that before!"

Klaus laughed, a short, self-conscious sound, as if Klaus himself wasn't used to hearing it.

"So who are the rest of our roommates?" Klaus asked.

"That's Katherine, Elijah, Stefan, and Bonnie," Caroline pointed to each person as she said their name.

Klaus's eyes followed Caroline's hand as she pointed.

"It seems 'princess' might be accurate for you, doesn't it?" Klaus nodded towards Caroline's ring. "Since you're clearly the hopeless romantic, always-dreamed-of-being-Cinderella-or-Barbie, happily-ever-after type."

Caroline fixed Klaus with a critical stare.

"You don't know me," she stated.

Klaus didn't look offended or discouraged by Caroline's assessment of their relationship.

If anything, he seemed to take it as a challenge.

{ }

By the time Rebekah arrived, jet-lagged, on Sunday night, everyone who had arrived before her was more than ready to find everything they could about what was happening to them and return to their normal lives.

Stefan worried about the income he was losing by not working overtime despite having the weekend off of work. Katherine and Kol watched the tense interactions between Klaus and Caroline with an almost maniacal interest (which made Caroline think that Katherine had shared her theory about her not loving Tyler), while Elijah and Bonnie stoically ignored them, though they had their moments when they were visibly annoyed with them.

They started their search the next morning. Katherine and Elijah stayed in the living room, Kol and Bonnie went in to the kitchen, Caroline, Klaus, and Rebekah searched the bedroom, and Stefan handled the bathroom on his own.

Caroline searched through the dresser, while Rebekah went through the closet and Klaus looked under the bed.

Looking through the clothes, Caroline didn't find anything she thought would give them any significant information about the person they were looking for.

"There has to be something here!" Katherine exclaimed impatiently from the living room.

Caroline was relieved that someone else was having as much trouble as she was, though that didn't help them find anything out about the apartment's former occupant.

"The contents of this dresser tells me that its owner was a woman who wore a lot of black clothing," Caroline reported, holding up a small sample of the contents to show Klaus and Rebekah.

Rebekah walked over to more carefully inspect the clothes. When she took them from Caroline's hands, she tapped the ring on her finger.

"What a charming little trinket," Rebekah smiled.

"I would say thank you, but I don't think that was a compliment," Caroline replied with a forced smile of her own.

"No, it's sweet," Rebekah said. "Perhaps more appropriate for a little girl who dreams of being a Disney princess than a grown woman, but maybe you're a grown woman who dreams of being a Disney princess, in which case it's perfectly suitable."

"I think it's romantic," Caroline insisted, looking down at the heart-shaped diamond on her finger. "My fiancé was so pleased with himself for finding this ring. He says that it suits my personality perfectly."

Klaus laughed, reminding Caroline of his presence in the room. She'd almost forgotten that there was someone else listening in on her conversation with Rebekah.

"That explains a lot," Klaus scoffed. "He thinks of you as some kind of 1950s housewife Barbie doll, and you've let him see you that way. You've made yourself look like he wanted you to look, and talk like he wanted you to talk, and act how he wanted you to act. But if that isn't who you really are, you can't keep that a secret anymore, Caroline, because there are seven people who can access your mind at random, and you can't hide from that, even if you've managed to fool everyone else in your life."

"That's a good point," Rebekah interjected. "We need to talk about that."

{ }

Rebekah, with a surprisingly commanding presence for someone of her stature, ordered everyone to take a break from the so far frustratingly futile search and meet in the living room.

"What is this about?" Kol asked.

"Klaus just brought up an interesting point that I think we need to discuss," Rebekah answered. "He was lecturing Caroline about her keeping her actual personality a secret from her fiancé, or something—"

"She doesn't love him, so I wouldn't worry too much about it," Katherine interrupted.

"Will you quit it?" Caroline exclaimed.

"Not until you admit it," Katherine retorted.

"Anyway," Rebekah demanded their attention. "The point is, we can't hide anything from each other when we can just appear in each other's heads with no warning. That means we don't have any privacy from each other."

"Okay?" Stefan said.

"I can only speak for myself, but I personally have not had the misfortune of interrupting something I didn't want to see," Rebekah continued.

"What would you define as something you didn't want to see?" Elijah inquired.

"I mean, I haven't seen anyone in the shower, or in bed," Rebekah answered.

"You aren't very creative when it comes to locations and positions then, are you?" Kol smirked.

Katherine and Klaus laughed.

Rebekah and Caroline rolled their eyes.

Elijah sighed.

"All I'm saying is that we have to learn how to control this," Rebekah said. "If there's a way, we have to find it."

"Well, I don't think we can do that while we're all here," Bonnie chimed in. "I mean, how are we supposed to know if we're seeing what another one of us is seeing, or if we're just seeing it for ourselves?"

"So what should we do?" Caroline asked.

"We finish our search of this place," Elijah decided. "If there's anything here that can help us, we need to find it. When we've finished with that, I suppose we all make our way home, try to continue our lives as normally as possible, and practice controlling these abilities if we can."

"Has anyone found anything? Because we've only found some clothes," Rebekah said.

"Unfortunately, most of the stuff in the living room belongs to one of us," Elijah answered. "The books don't really reveal anything about the person who lived here except they seemed to prefer British authors over Americans."

"So do I," Caroline, Klaus, Rebekah, and Bonnie spoke in unison.

"So that doesn't even really narrow down our search," Rebekah lamented. "Because she still really could be anyone."

"She?" Elijah repeated.

"Yeah, the clothes in the dresser and closet are a woman's," Caroline responded.

"So are the products in the bathroom," Stefan corroborated. "Makeup, hair products, things like that. I tried to look for a prescription so that we would have a name to look for, but there wasn't anything in there."

"All that we found in the kitchen were some pots and pans, some dishes and silverware, a toaster, and a blender," Kol chimed in. "All of the groceries, we bought, so there's nothing there."

"Well, let's keep looking. We can't give up until we've scoured every inch of this place," Elijah declared.

They split up again, and Caroline, Rebekah, and Klaus went back into the bedroom.

Rebekah gathered up all of the clothes hanging in the closet and threw them on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Caroline asked.

"There has to be something in here," Rebekah answered. "Don't people hide things in their closets?"

"There aren't many other hiding places in an apartment this small," Caroline noted.

Deciding that Rebekah's plan might have some merit, she scooped the clothes out of each dresser drawer to look underneath. There was nothing in the first three drawers, but in the bottom drawer, Caroline was shocked by what she found.

Taped to the bottom drawer was a piece of paper. Caroline cut through the tape with her thumb nail and picked up the paper.

Which was blank.

Caroline let out a disgruntled sigh.

"What's the matter, princess?" Klaus asked.

He had barely spoken to her that day, for which Caroline was grateful. She had enough on her mind without this virtual stranger who had been inside her mind, smelling her nail polish and trying on her wedding dress, trying to convince her she wasn't the person she thought she was. She wanted to be stunned and offended by his nerve, to remind him that he didn't know her and that he should stop acting like he knew the first thing about her, but when Klaus's blue eyes were trained on her, she felt like glass: transparent and breakable.

"Don't call me that," Caroline reprimanded. "And I thought I found something, but it turned out to be a dead end. There was a piece of paper taped to the bottom of this drawer, but it's blank."

"Then what is the point of it being there?" Rebekah asked.

"How should I know?" Caroline replied, looking back into the drawer. "Oh, it's because the grain of the wood doesn't match the rest of the drawer."

Caroline dragged her finger along the demarcation where the wood changed. Her eyes widened. What had looked like a line was actually a crack in the wood.

Caroline slid her nail along the gap, trying to lift up the section that had been covered by the piece of paper.

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting to find underneath, but it wasn't the gun she saw hidden in the false bottom of the drawer.

"Hey guys, I found something," Caroline announced.

"What is it?" Rebekah called out, her head still in the closet.

"There was a false bottom in the drawer," Caroline explained. "And this was in it."

Caroline held up the gun.

"How do you suppose she got her hands on that?" Klaus wondered.

"Hopefully, legally," Caroline answered.

"Oh my goodness, put that away!" Rebekah cried.

"Not a fan of guns then, Rebekah?" Klaus chuckled.

"Not at all!" Rebekah insisted, pulling the gun from Caroline's hands, clearly intending to put it back where it came from.

"Be careful with that!" Caroline scolded. "If you don't know what you're doing, you could seriously hurt someone, or yourself."

"The safety's on, don't worry," Rebekah replied calmly, showing Caroline that the safety of the gun was, in fact, on.

Rebekah shook her head.

"How did I know that?" she asked. She looked down at the gun in her hands. "Take this, I don't even want to touch it."

Caroline took the gun from Rebekah.

"Come on, let's go tell everyone what we found."

{ }

"Everyone, we found something," Caroline announced as she walked into the living room, Klaus and Rebekah on her heels.

Everyone came running.

Caroline held up the gun so that they could all see it.

"I found this in a false bottom in a dresser drawer," she told them. "Hopefully whoever owns this bought it legally, which means that it's registered. Would you or someone you trust at the police department be able to check that for us, Elijah?"

"I'll go into work early and look into it first thing tomorrow morning," Elijah agreed, taking the gun from Caroline.

"That's another thing," Caroline started. "Just a few minutes ago, Rebekah took the gun out of my hands, and was able to determine within seconds that the safety was on, even though she hates guns and has never touched one before in her life."

"So?" Kol challenged. "That doesn't mean she's never seen an action movie."

"Maybe," Caroline acknowledged. "But do any of you think it's possible that we're sharing more than just our senses among us? That maybe we can share information among ourselves? Because that would be amazing, if all eight of us had access to all of the information that any of the eight of us know."

Caroline's obvious excitement at the idea made Klaus laugh.

"What?" she asked, innocent blue eyes blinking rapidly as she tried to figure out what she had done to make Klaus laugh at her.

"And nothing is more exciting than knowledge!" Klaus said in a high-pitched, mocking tone. "You're just so wholesome, princess, it's surprisingly cute."

Caroline frowned and drew herself up to her full height.

"I'm not 'cute,'" she insisted. "And don't call me princess."

"Okay," Bonnie interjected, steering the conversation back to Caroline's theory. "We can test this. Show of hands: of the eight of us, how many of us have learned gun safety, or have ever shot a gun?"

Klaus raised his own hand, as did Elijah, which didn't surprise anyone since he was a police officer.

But the last hand that went up stunned him.

And he wasn't the only one who was shocked, since Klaus saw everyone else's eyes widen as they stared at Caroline's raised hand.

Klaus found the idea of Caroline, with her doll-like blue eyes and blonde curls, and the girly little dresses and jackets that she wore, holding a gun, aimed at someone, or even just a target, out of place with everything he knew about her, but also wildly attractive.

"Those two I can believe, but you, Caroline?" Katherine questioned skeptically.

"My mom is the sheriff of my hometown," Caroline explained. "She's carried a gun as part of her job my whole life, and she didn't want me to be scared of it or accidentally hurt myself with it, so she trained me on how to safely use a gun. I don't own one myself, and I only go to the shooting range with my mom once a year to refresh my memory, but yeah, I know what I'm doing."

"Wow," Kol said. "I wouldn't have guessed that about you."

"I think we're all going to get to know each other very well from now on," Caroline replied.

"Well, there's nothing else we can do until I can try to find out who owns that gun," Elijah added. "I suppose we can all stay here until that happens, but we also all have our own lives to get back to."

Stefan and Bonnie both announced that they were only able to stay for the weekend, and had already purchased plane tickets to their respective home cities for that night.

"Should we exchange phone numbers then?" Kol joked. "Maybe try a method of communication a little more normal than appearing in each other's dreams?"

They all exchanged contact information, then everyone except Elijah packed their belongings and got ready to return to their ordinary lives—if they could even call their lives ordinary anymore.

{ }

The next day, Caroline found herself tossing and turning as she tried to fall asleep.

She'd flown back to Virginia that morning, and had spent the day avoiding both her mother and Tyler. It wasn't that she wanted to keep secrets from them, and she was equally reluctant to tell them, but she just wanted more time to figure out her new abilities before telling anyone about them, if she even decided to tell anyone about them. If her mother or Tyler came to her telling her that they were inexplicably mentally connected to seven other people, she would think that they were insane, or making it all up.

But as a self-confessed chatterbox, the easiest way to avoid telling someone something was to avoid spending any time with them at all.

Now, after hours of dodging their calls, her brain was still too wired to sleep.

There hadn't been an incident that day. In the apartment in Chicago, on the way to the airport, on the plane, and at home, she'd been the only occupant of her own mind all day.

She'd gone entire days without experiencing something that wasn't actually happening to her before, but she'd just assumed that once all of them met in person, their connection would intensify somehow.

Caroline sighed.

She missed them. She knew that it was strange to miss people that she'd only known for a week, but she did. As different as they all were, she liked these people that she shared this connection with.

At Katherine's insistence, they had started a group message, and had spent the day keeping each other apprised of their activities throughout the day. Katherine had continued to tease her about her relationship with Tyler. Kol shared jokes that, as funny as they were, Caroline wouldn't want anyone to see on her phone. Elijah had let them all know that he had searched for the gun's serial number in the police database and would let them know when he had the results. Rebekah had complained when jazz music had prevented her from sleeping on her flight back to Sydney, to which Bonnie had replied with an apology for leaving her window open, and then Stefan complained about the number of messages they were all sending, adding that he was working, so he couldn't reply.

The only one not to say anything was Klaus. He'd left early that morning, before even Caroline woke up. Katherine had been annoyed, since they were both flying to the same place, yet he seemed to refuse to travel in the same plane as her.

He hadn't said goodbye to anyone when he left, not that that bothered Caroline at all. She was looking forward to having a break from being called princess in that condescending voice that had made a home for itself on her last nerve.

He didn't know her.

And she was engaged, for goodness sakes.

So why were his eyes and his voice hovering at the edges of her subconscious, haunting her, when the only man she should be thinking about was her fiancé, who contrary to what Katherine believed, she loved?

Caroline blinked hard, trying to rid the images from her mind.

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn't in her room.

Caroline's bedroom was painted a soft yellow, with white furniture and white eyelet curtains.

This room had walls painted grey, with dark wood furniture and black curtains.

Instead of lying under the pink bedspread of her own bed, Caroline was now lying under a dark grey blanket.

"Hello?" Caroline called out quietly.

A set of heavy footsteps approached, then the door opened.

She could see his Cheshire cat smile backlit by the light from the hallway behind him.

"I must admit, I like the sight of you in my bed, princess," Klaus smirked.

{ }

Caroline sat up quickly.

"Well, don't get used to it," Caroline retorted. "I don't know how I got here, but I'd like to go home."

She threw back the blankets and hopped out of the bed, while Klaus stepped further into the room.

"Is this a thing we can do now?" Caroline wondered. "Spontaneously travel to someone else's location?"

"I have no idea," Klaus shrugged.

"I'm going to let everyone know that this happened," Caroline announced, reaching for her phone.

Which was currently across the Atlantic Ocean.

"Okay, change of plans. You are going to let everyone know that this happened," Caroline said, holding her hand out.

"What are you looking at me for?" Klaus asked.

"I need your phone, mine is in a different country," Caroline explained.

Klaus sighed, but reluctantly handed over her phone.

Caroline typed out a quick message informing the group of what had happened—namely, that she had been in her own bed one minute, and the next she was in Klaus's, seeming to travel from Mystic Falls to London in less time than it took her to blink.

Katherine and Kol immediately replied with innuendoes. Rebekah and Elijah both sent skeptical responses, wondering whether their abilities had expanded into a physical connection between them, or if this, like everything else they'd experienced so far, was entirely mental.

"Rebekah and Elijah think that this is all in our heads," Caroline told Klaus. "Like how I didn't actually hear gunshots, I just heard what you were hearing; or how you didn't actually try on a wedding dress, you were just feeling what I was feeling."

"Is there any way to test that theory?" Klaus asked.

"Are you alone?" Caroline asked.

"I'm not entertaining a guest this evening, if that's what you mean," Klaus answered with a smirk. "You would have known if I was, I assure you."

"That wasn't what I meant," Caroline responded. "I meant, do you have a roommate, or a family member who lives with you, and might think you're crazy for talking to yourself."

Caroline pushed passed him and into the hallway, surveying the sparsely decorated walls before finding herself in a living room whose most notable contents were a large black sectional and a flat screen TV mounted on the wall.

"No, I don't have a roommate and I don't have a family," Klaus answered.

"Oh," Caroline was stunned. Klaus said it so matter-of-factly that it made Caroline's heart break for him. "I'm so sorry."

Klaus looked at her, surprised.

"For what? You didn't do anything."

"You said you didn't have a family," Caroline emphasized. "I was expressing sympathy. It's an important part of being a human being who successfully interacts with others, you should try it sometime."

"I don't need your pity, princess," Klaus remarked lazily. "I don't need a family either."

"I don't believe that," Caroline said. "Everyone needs a family."

"That's because you don't know my family," Klaus replied. "But we aren't talking about that, we were trying to figure out how we can be sure that you're really here. Or that you're not, I suppose either way will work."

"Well, I was just thinking that if this is only happening because of our mental connection and it isn't actually, you know, real, if you had a roommate they wouldn't be able to see me," Caroline suggested. "But if you live alone, we can't really use that theory."

"What about the other way?" Klaus proposed. "Is there someone at your house who would notice if you were gone? Or else talking to yourself and convinced you were in London?"

Caroline shook her head.

"My mom's at work. I was home alone," she answered.

"You don't live with your fiancé?" Klaus inquired.

"No, not until we're married," Caroline said. "It's the South, his mom is really conservative. Plus, she doesn't really like me, so I think she just wants to keep us apart in the hopes that Tyler will change his mind about marrying me."

"How could anyone not like you?" Klaus wondered. "Especially since you're signing yourself up for a lifetime of playing Jackie O to his JFK. You know, wearing pretty dresses and turning a blind eye as he cheats on you. Being the perfect politician's wife."

Caroline decided to ignore his jabs at Tyler and their relationship.

"I'm not sure it's personal, I think Carol is just very protective and thinks that no one on Earth could possibly be good enough for her precious little boy."

"You know what I think?" Klaus asked. "I think you're being taken advantage of, and I have no idea why you're putting up with it. I think that Tyler is too self-centered and immature to love and want to marry you. I think that he wants to marry the image of the beautiful, blonde, college-educated, daughter of the sheriff of the small town they both were born and raised in, because that image will help him get elected to whatever it is he wants to run for. But I don't think he wants to marry Caroline, and I don't think he even knows Caroline."

Caroline tried to ignore the way her heart raced when Klaus called her beautiful. She couldn't remember the last time that Tyler had called her beautiful. She couldn't remember the last conversation that they had had that wasn't about him and his plans and how Caroline fit into them—the chalk outline of a tall, thin body, painstakingly styled in a suit that was somehow simultaneously conservative without being matronly, feminine without being girlish, stylish without being eye-catching enough to steal attention away from Tyler: the one who really mattered.

"Regardless of what you think, I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions," Caroline said. "And for the record, Tyler does know me. We've known each other since we were little, and we've been together for years."

"Does he know how much you've grown since then?"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Caroline insisted. "I appreciate your kind words towards me, but I don't want to just stand here and listen to you criticize my fiancé, who you've never met."

"Fine."

"Would it be totally out of character for you to knock on the door of one of your neighbors?" Caroline asked.

"I tend to keep to myself, plus I'm working a lot of the time," Klaus admitted. "I'm not sure I know any of my neighbors."

Just then, someone knocked on Klaus's door.

"Just stand there, so that they can see you," Klaus instructed. "If they can see you."

Klaus pulled open the door.

"Marcel," Klaus greeted.

Marcel was a handsome man with a movie star smile and the swagger of someone who had the means to live by his own rules.

"Good, you're alone," Marcel pushed past Klaus into the apartment.

Marcel couldn't see her. This was all in her head.

"Wake up, Caroline," she told herself.

"There's been a new development," Marcel started, but Caroline didn't hear the rest of what he said.

She blinked, and she was back in her own room.

Caroline took a deep breath.

"This is getting crazier by the minute."

{ }

Elijah returned to the apartment the next day to return the gun to its hiding place.

Now that he had recorded the serial number, he didn't need the gun itself in his possession anymore. He wanted to put it back where Caroline had found it as soon as possible—hiding a stolen firearm at a police stadium was a very risky operation.

Elijah pushed open the door, which they'd never locked, having been unable to find a spare key.

He strode purposefully to the bedroom, opened the bottom drawer of the dresser, moved aside the contents, and hid the gun back in the drawer's false bottom.

With his objective completed, Elijah left the room, intending to leave the apartment and go home.

That was when he saw the man standing in the living room.

"Hello?" Elijah called out. "Can I help you?"

It felt very odd to speaking that way to someone who had also essentially broken in to an abandoned apartment, but the place felt like it belonged to them, and now some stranger was standing there, invading their private space.

The man turned to face him.

This man was the embodiment of potential energy. He held himself like a snake poised to strike, the frantic frenzy just waiting to be unleashed intensified by the glow of his wild eyes against his dark skin.

"I thought that you had left," the man said. "I was watching; I thought that you had all left. I was waiting for you to leave so that I could come back."

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Elijah asked, trying to remain calm.

"My name is Vincent, and this apartment belonged to a very dear friend of mine," Vincent answered. "She's the one who made the eight of you what you are now."

Elijah pulled out his phone and sent a very brief, direct message: 'You need to get back here. Now.'

{ }

Within twenty-four hours, all eight of them were back in the living room of the apartment.

"If anyone asks, my grandmother is in the hospital," Bonnie announced as she walked through the door.

Everyone immediately agreed to cover for her if necessary, Caroline even going so far as to research potential diagnoses so that she could convincingly pretend to be a nurse.

Katherine arrived holding a knitted scarf in her hand.

"I think Caroline might have been on to something," she said. "Do any of you know how to knit?"

"I do," Caroline and Rebekah answered.

"Okay, so I was sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight, and this grandmother sits down next to me and starts knitting," Katherine started. "When she sees me, she asks if I know how to knit, and I tell her that I don't. Then she offers to teach me, and I agree just to be nice and because I don't really want to keep talking to her. But then she hands me knitting needles and some yarn, and I just start knitting. And I have no idea how I know what I'm doing, but I do. I made this in the hour-and-a-half I was waiting," Katherine held up the scarf. "So I think Caroline's right. Anything that any of us knows, now we can all know it. Which is very cool and also very creepy, as is this entire situation."

"It's great that there's a positive component to this, rather than just randomly seeing things in dreams or tasting someone else's food," Caroline pointed out.

"Or randomly appearing in someone's bed!" Katherine challenged. "We are talking about that."

Someone cleared their throat from behind them.

Standing next to Elijah was an unfamiliar man.

"Everyone, this is Vincent," Elijah told them. "He was close friends with the person who lived in this apartment. He claims to have answers regarding our new abilities, and I don't see the harm in hearing his explanations. I thought you would be interested as well, which is why I instructed you to come back."

Elijah took a small step backward, letting Vincent have the floor.

"Her name was Freya," Vincent said. "She died just over a month ago. And her death is what created you."

"Created us?" Rebekah asked.

"Let's just let him explain, with no interruptions," Elijah scolded.

"Freya was a sensate," Vincent continued. "So am I, and so are all of you. The eight of you form a cluster, which means that you are mentally linked, which you have likely already experienced, whether it was sharing experiences, communicating with each other, sharing your knowledge and experiences. The death of a sensate creates a new cluster, and your cluster was created by Freya's death."

"I'm so sorry for your loss," Caroline offered. The rest of the cluster, as they now knew they were called, murmured words of agreement.

"Thank you," Vincent replied. "Now there's something you should know about Freya's death."

He paused to gather his thoughts.

"Freya was on the run from a man known as 'Whispers,'" Vincent informed them. "He is a sensate who rejected his cluster and his entire species, and is now a part of the organization whose mission is to eliminate all sensates."

"Of course there's someone trying to kill us," Klaus muttered darkly.

"Wait, when you say species, are you saying that we aren't human?" Stefan asked.

"Yes," Vincent answered. "The scientific name for humans is Homo sapiens, and the scientific name for sensates is Homo sensorium. Same genus, but different species."

Katherine laughed.

"Caroline, I think you should break up with your fiancé who you don't love anyway, because everyone knows that interspecies relationships never work out."

Katherine, Rebekah, Kol, and Klaus laughed.

Vincent looked concerned.

"Have any of you told anyone outside of the cluster about your abilities?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Good, keep it that way," Vincent approved.

"So, what is it exactly that we can do?" Bonnie asked timidly.

"After a month, you've probably already experienced a lot of it," Vincent answered. "You can share each other's senses, knowledge, language. You can communicate from a distance, on a mental plane."

"What does that mean?" Kol asked.

"That's what happened to Klaus and Caroline," Rebekah answered. "She mentally traveled to England, but she didn't really leave her house. They were able to talk to each other because of our connection, even though they were in different countries with an ocean between them."

"Correct," Vincent confirmed. "It can be very unnerving at first when that happens, so you just have to remember that you're safe at home, or wherever you were, and while what is happening is real, it's only happening in your head."

"Is there a way for us to control our abilities?" Caroline asked.

"It just takes time and practice," Vincent answered. "It requires concentration and focus. But you can control them in the sense that you can essentially close yourself off to your cluster for a time, or conversely, reach out to a member of your cluster, which can be very useful in times of crisis."

"What I'm really concerned about is this organization that's trying to kill us," Klaus said.

"It's called the Biologic Preservation Organization," Vincent explained. "They study human genetics, and they try to find and destroy all sensates. They're international, with connections within governments all over the world, they're incredibly well-funded… There's no escaping them," Vincent sighed. "Freya was trying to escape Whispers, but she was trapped, and he was closing in, so… she did the only thing that she could to make sure he didn't get his hands on her."

Caroline gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

"I am going to help you, to make sure that you all stay safe from him," Vincent promised. "But you have to be careful, because each and every one of you has a target on their back."

{ }

The next several weeks passed as normally as they could for the cluster as they continued to adjust to their new abilities.

There were days when nothing happened, and there were days when everyone had something new to share.

Katherine had been able to mentally transport to Chicago to 'visit' Elijah.

Kol had discovered the ability to speak Italian, thanks to Bonnie and Stefan, who both answered in the affirmative when Kol had asked the group which of them spoke the language.

And Caroline had 'visited' Klaus at least once each week.

She wasn't sure why she kept getting sent to see him and not anyone else, but no matter how hard she tried to control it, she couldn't make herself go anywhere else.

The first few times it happened, Klaus had seemed amused, taking it as some sort of sign that he was constantly on Caroline's mind.

Eventually, they had both accepted these encounters, and in Caroline's case, at least, even look forward to them.

It was after the second such meeting that Katherine had taken it upon herself to create a second group message for herself, Caroline, Rebekah, and Bonnie, where their primary topic of conversation was the guys in the cluster. Despite the challenge of time zones, the four girls were constantly texting, mostly about Klaus and Caroline's obvious chemistry and interest in each other, though they occasionally took a break to discuss Katherine and Elijah's growing feelings for each other.

Caroline maintained that she was engaged and she loved her fiancé, even as she got to know Klaus more and grew to like him more than she had when they first met. She refused to tell anyone what Klaus had told her about himself, not wanting to betray his confidence, no matter how much Katherine pestered her.

As pushy as Katherine could be, Caroline knew that her intentions were good.

Caroline thought, and even shared with the rest of the cluster, how glad she was that she genuinely liked the seven of them.

Then Kol ruined the sentimental moment by wondering aloud if that was a side effect of their connection, and they'd been forced to like each other.

As they established this new normal that included randomly seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, hearing things that weren't really there, and randomly knowing things that they'd never learned themselves, and speaking languages they weren't fluent in, the cluster also established a solid friendship.

They each felt themselves drifting apart from friends, family, and acquaintances who weren't in the cluster. The eight of them were now an entirely different species from everyone else they knew, and it was easier to spend time with people who understood.

The more isolated they grew from the people in their lives, the more they came to depend on each other.

And if they all had the strange feeling that they were being watched, they simply blamed it on the link that meant seven other people could be watching them at any time.

{ }

Caroline was getting ready for a fundraiser that she had to attend with Tyler when it happened.

She was putting the finishing touches on her makeup when she felt a blow to the back of her head, making her smear lipstick across the bottom half of her face as she cried out in pain.

Her phone rang a second later.

"Care, was that you?" Rebekah asked frantically.

"No, it wasn't me," Caroline answered. "Was it you?"

"Nope."

"But that's weird, that you felt it, too," Caroline said. "Right?"

"To be quite honest, Caroline, I'm starting to have trouble keeping track of what's weird anymore," Rebekah responded.

"That's true," Caroline sighed. "Do you want me to help you figure out who it was?"

"I appreciate the offer, but I think I can handle six more minute-long phone calls by myself."

"Okay, call me when you know something," Caroline said. "Bye, Bekah."

"I'll talk to you soon."

Tyler walked in the door a few minutes after Rebekah hung up.

"You look nice," he complimented.

"Thanks."

Tyler took Caroline's hand and led her towards her front door. Her mother was working, as usual, so they were alone in the house.

"What is this fundraiser for, again?" Caroline asked.

"Repairing Wickery Bridge," Tyler answered.

"After all of the fundraisers we've had, they still haven't finished repairing that stupid bridge?" Caroline exclaimed.

"I know, but if I want to be elected mayor after my dad retires, I have to show my support for the town," Tyler explained, as if they hadn't had this conversation before. "And I have to have the prettiest girl on my arm."

He'd meant it as a compliment, Caroline was sure. But it felt like Tyler had just proven all of the accusations Klaus had thrown at him right. It sounded like Tyler did just see her as an accessory, or as a campaign strategy. Handing out buttons, kissing babies, marrying the sheriff's daughter. Could it all be the same to him?

Just then, Caroline's phone rang.

"Hey, Kat, what's up? Have you heard from Rebekah yet?" Caroline asked, ducking back into her bedroom to take the call.

"Yeah. Care, it's Klaus," Katherine told her.

"What?"

"I'm assuming that you, like all of the rest of us, felt like you were hit in the back of the head with a heavy object a few minutes ago?" Katherine confirmed.

"Yes?"

"Elijah called me right after it happened to make sure that I was okay."

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Caroline squealed.

"Not the time, Care!" Katherine scolded.

"Sorry."

"He called Kol and Stefan while Rebekah called you," Katherine explained. "He couldn't reach you, so he called me back to ask if I had heard from you. When we hung up, Rebekah called me, and I asked if she'd talked to you, and she said she'd called you and Bonnie so far."

"Which means Klaus is the only one unaccounted for," Caroline concluded.

"Sorry, Caroline."

"Well, we have to find him! He could be seriously hurt!" Caroline exclaimed.

"I know, but how?" Katherine asked.

"If we all concentrate all of our energy into finding him, at least one of us should be able to sense something," Caroline reasoned. "And since you're in London, you can go to his house. Best case scenario, Marcel was able to drag him home and now he's lying on the couch watching _Inception_ and waiting for the pain meds to kick in."

"I don't know his address," Katherine lamented. "And who's Marcel?"

"Klaus's friend slash coworker," Caroline replied absently. "And I can text you his address as soon as I hang up."

"Okay, I'll keep you posted."

Katherine hung up and Caroline texted her Klaus's address, which she only had because she'd happened to see some mail he'd left out on the coffee table one of the times she'd visited him. Now she was glad that she'd thought to write the information down.

Caroline walked back out to Tyler, who had an expectant, impatient look on his face.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"No, my friend is in trouble and I need to help him," Caroline replied. "I'm sorry, but I can't go to the fundraiser tonight."

"This is important to me, Caroline," Tyler insisted.

"And my friend is important to me," Caroline shot back. "He needs my help."

"Well, I need you here, not running off to help male friends," Tyler snapped. "Do you know how bad it would look for me if people thought you were cheating on me?"

"Is that all you care about?" Caroline asked. "Your image? Do you even love me, or do you love the image of the mayor's son and the sheriff's daughter being high school sweethearts? Because you want the perfect politician's wife, but I can't be the Jackie to your JFK, sitting there smiling while Marilyn Monroe sings happy birthday to you!"

"Where is this even coming from? Of course I love you. We're going to get married, and we're going to make all of our dreams come true together," Tyler insisted.

"Do you even know what my dreams are?" Caroline asked. "Because they aren't matching my headbands to your ties, and smiling next to you while you campaign for something. You don't want me, you want a Barbie doll with a backstory that voters will love. And I thought I loved you enough to put up with that, but I don't love you enough to give up on myself. I'm sorry, but being first lady of Small Town, U.S.A. isn't enough for me."

And with that, she pulled off her engagement ring and pressed it into Tyler's palm.

"Why don't you calm down, okay? You don't want to make any big decisions that you'll regret later," Tyler said.

"I need to go, and you have a fundraiser to attend," Caroline told him. "Please leave."

As soon as the door closed behind Tyler, Caroline was dialing her phone.

"Hey, it's Caroline. I'm on my way. Can you pick me up at the airport?"

{ }

The next morning, Caroline pulled her hastily packed suitcase through Heathrow International Airport, trying to find her friend in the crowd.

After a few minutes, she finally found Katherine waving at her.

"Hi," Caroline greeted her.

"Hey," Katherine replied. "So, Elijah, Kol and Rebekah are on their way, Stefan and Bonnie are looking for flights after they get off of work, and Elijah called Vincent, and he's on his way, too."

"I didn't even think of that," Caroline said.

"That's why there are eight of us," Katherine shrugged.

Katherine led Caroline to where her car was parked.

"Plus, you've done plenty. I wouldn't have been able to check his house if you hadn't known the address," Katherine pointed out. "So, I'll drop you off there, and then I have to go back to get Elijah."

"Okay."

They spent the rest of the car ride in silence.

Caroline had been trying for hours to send some sort of mental signal to Klaus, eager for any response that might give her some clue as to where he was.

She was jolted out of her concentration by the car coming to a stop. Caroline gathered her luggage and followed Katherine to the front door of Klaus's home.

"Luckily, I found where he keeps the spare key," Katherine smirked.

She reached up to the top of the door frame, picked up the key, and unlocked the door.

Caroline and Katherine collapsed on the couch as soon as they made it inside.

"So, I guess I'll keep trying to find out anything about where he might be," Caroline suggested. "At least we haven't seen or felt anything that would suggest he's been hurt again, that's a good sign."

"That's true," Katherine agreed.

"Wait a minute. Show me your hands!" Katherine demanded.

Caroline hesitantly held them up.

"You dumped your fiancé who you don't love!" Katherine exclaimed.

"I did," Caroline confirmed.

"What happened?" Katherine asked.

"I told him that a friend was in trouble and needed my help, and Tyler's first reaction was that my going to help Klaus would look bad for him if people thought I was cheating on him," Caroline explained. "I realized that you and Klaus were right. He didn't love me as much as he loved the idea of me, and I didn't love him enough to sacrifice my dreams, and my friends, and my independence to be the person he wanted me to be."

"Sing it, sister," Katherine responded. "In all seriousness though, I'm proud of you. I would have been even prouder of you three weeks ago, which was the week I picked that you would dump him in our bet, but even though Stefan won, I am proud."

"Thanks, Katherine. I think," Caroline replied.

"No problem."

{ }

Once Katherine left, Caroline once again concentrated on trying to find Klaus. When that failed, she turned her attention to trying to send him messages of support, letting him know that they were coming to rescue him.

She even considered telling him that she'd ended her engagement, but she figured that he would find out soon enough anyway, and he would probably ask questions about what happened, so it was easier to wait and let him know in person.

Plus, she wasn't sure if he'd care, apart from the satisfaction of being proven right.

He'd called her beautiful, and flirted with her, and told her things about himself that he claimed he'd never told anyone else—about his abusive father, about his job, about his hopes and dreams—but a few compliments and conversations did not a relationship make. But he hadn't spoken that way to Katherine, or Rebekah, or Bonnie, all of whom were prettier, smarter, more interesting, and all together more desirable than Caroline was.

Caroline shook her head. It didn't matter if he cared or not. He was a member of the cluster, and he was a friend, and right now, he was in trouble. Her focus had to be on helping to rescue him. Everything else could wait.

She still hadn't made any progress by the time Katherine returned with Elijah in tow.

"Well, you're the only one who has mentally teleported to him before, so if you can't find him, then I can't see why any of us would have a better chance," Katherine sighed.

"Vincent might be able to help us when he gets here," Elijah pointed out. "His flight should be landing soon."

"I'm going to spend the whole day in the airport today, aren't I?" Katherine complained.

"I can go retrieve him myself if you want," Elijah offered.

"That won't be necessary," Vincent himself announced from the doorway. "I managed to get a ticket on an earlier flight and took a cab here."

"How did you know where Klaus lives?" Caroline asked.

"The BPO knows everything about all of you," Vincent answered ominously.

"That's fantastic," Katherine deadpanned.

"Then do you know where he might be?" Caroline asked.

"There's only one place that he could be," Vincent answered. "The BPO's facility in London."

"Okay, let's go!" Caroline exclaimed, getting to her feet.

"You can't!" Vincent insisted. "It's too dangerous. Wait for the rest of your cluster to get here. Then we might have a chance."

{ }

By the time everyone arrived, the moon was high in the sky.

Vincent assured them that this was a good thing, since fewer people would be in the facility at night than during the day.

"So, do we have a plan? Or are we just going to storm the castle and hope for the best?" Stefan asked.

"The plan is to storm the castle, find Klaus, and get out before anyone, especially this Whispers person, sees us," Kol corrected.

"Well, we can't go unarmed," Caroline said, walking over to the safe that she knew contained Klaus's collection of guns.

She typed in the combination to the safe and yanked open the door, quickly surveying the contents.

"He told you the combination to his gun safe?" Katherine exclaimed.

"No," Caroline answered absently.

"No, he didn't," Caroline repeated more emphatically. "I didn't know it at all, I just typed it in without even thinking about it, like muscle memory, or something."

"Did you know that's where the guns were?" Elijah asked.

"Yeah," Caroline answered. "I asked why he had a safe in his living room, and he said that that's where he kept his guns. Something about wanting them easily accessible in case of an intruder."  
Caroline started frantically grabbing everything in the safe and placing them on the coffee table behind her.

"We need to go, now," Caroline insisted. "He was able to communicate with me, that's a good sign."

"There's not enough room in my car for all of us," Katherine reminded them.

"Whoever doesn't fit will call a cab and follow you," Bonnie decided.

"Then, Caroline, Vincent, and Elijah: come with me," Katherine commanded.

Caroline took one of the guns off of the table and tucked it into her waistband, watching as Katherine, Vincent, and Elijah all did the same, with varying levels of confidence in the weapons they were now carrying.

"Let's go."

{ }

The parking lot was deserted when they arrive at the BPO facility.

In the few minutes before the rest of the cluster arrived, Caroline, Katherine, Elijah, and Vincent sized up the building in front of them.

It was almost intimidating in its accessibility. There was no fortress, or moat. No drawbridge or guard dogs.

It was modern-looking, like the headquarters of some technology company, which to many people, it was, in many respects. It wasn't the science fiction dystopian lair that sensates targeted by the organization thought that it should be.

After the cab dropped off Rebekah, Bonnie, Kol, and Stefan, they hesitantly approached the building.

"Whatever we do, no one goes anywhere on their own," Rebekah said. "We have to stick together."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The automatic doors slid open, revealing an ordinary looking hallway with every other light turned off. On one side was a block of cubicles, reminding them that these people who wanted them dead came to work every day and sat at a desk.

They weren't monsters, killing innocent people out of hatred. They were just scared and threatened by something that they didn't and could never understand.

It took what felt like hours—but was actually less than one—to find Klaus. He was trapped in a cage that looked like a fish tank, with glass walls reinforced with steel.

He shook his head frantically as he saw them coming.

"Eight people, and not one of you has any sense of self-preservation. Your blind loyalty will be your downfall," a mysterious voice came from behind them.

They all turned to see the man that they instinctively knew was the enigmatic entity they knew only as Whispers.

"Use one as bait and they all come running," he continued. "You didn't consider for even a moment that this was a trap, and now you've all fallen into it. I must say, eliminating this cluster was even easier than I'd hoped it would be."

Elijah drew his gun and pointed it straight at Whispers' chest.

He scoffed.

"You would really resort to this?" he asked. "The mission of this organization is bigger than me, bigger than any of you. Fear of the unknown is a part of human nature; you can't fight it, and whatever you do to me won't erase it."

"But it's a start," Vincent countered.

Six guns were drawn.

Seven shots were fired.

Whispers lay dead on the floor, and they would never know who killed him.

They scrambled to free Klaus from his glass prison before someone came to investigate.

"Are you okay?" Caroline asked. "What happened?"

"I'm fine, they knocked me out and brought me here," Klaus answered. "I woke up in this cage with a headache."

"We all felt the hit you took to the back of your head, you should probably have someone stay with you tonight to make sure you don't have a concussion," Caroline suggested.

"Are you volunteering, princess?" Klaus asked with a smirk.

"You should choose whoever you feel most comfortable with," Caroline hedged.

Klaus looked around at the cluster.

"I can't believe you all came here for me," Klaus said.

"Some of us even dumped our stupid fiancés to come here for you," Katherine cut in.

"Katherine!" Caroline scolded.

"Is that true?" Klaus asked.

"It was more of the principle of the thing, but technically, yes, I suppose that is true," Caroline said. "And of course we came for you! We're a team! We are always there for each other, no matter what, so it's time for you to drop this 'I'm not worthy of unconditional love and support' attitude, because it isn't true!"

"Did you just say that you loved me?"

"No, I said that you deserved love. I made no promises that I would be the one to give it to you," Caroline corrected. "You really should listen when I talk."

"It's like having a nagging wife," Klaus complained good-naturedly.

"Did you just call me your wife?"

"No, I didn't. You really should listen when I talk."

"I will fight you for maid of honor, Bekah," Katherine interrupted.

"How about whoever comes closest to predicting the date he proposes?" Rebekah suggested.

"Deal."

"We aren't even together!" Caroline exclaimed.

"Yet," Klaus added. "Don't you worry, I'll win you over, princess."

Caroline blushed, hiding her face in her hands. Klaus pulled her hands away from her face, placing a kiss on the back of her hand in a sweetly chivalrous gesture.

"As truly adorable as this all is, we really should go before anyone sees the nine of us standing over the dead body on the floor," Kol spoke up.

"I just have one more question," Klaus started as they began walking out of the building. "Where did you get so many guns on such short notice?"

"Your safe," Katherine answered.

"You broke into my safe?" Klaus exclaimed.

"Caroline knew the combination," Elijah explained.

"I'd ask how you knew the combination, but I'm guessing it's one of those things that are just a part of being what we are."

They heard police sirens in the distance and walked quickly towards the parking lot, where Katherine's car was waiting for Katherine, Elijah, Klaus, and Caroline, and everyone else would call a cab.

Before they split up, the cluster stood together for a moment, reassuring themselves that everything was okay.

"You know, Whispers wasn't the whole organization, or even the leader," Vincent commented. "We still have deal with them, and they'll be watching you even more closely now that you've evaded them."

"And we will figure it all out," Klaus promised. "Together."

* * *

Thank you so much for reading!

I would love to know what you thought, so please leave a review; I love reading them!

lots of love,  
charlotte


	3. still my heart is saying we were right

Hello lovely readers!

The latest entry in this collection is the gift I wrote for the Klaroline Sweet Swap gift exchange (and if you were wondering why I haven't updated "A Life You Love" yet, this 30,000+ word monster is the culprit)

My prompt was to write a story inspired by the song "If I Never Knew You" from Disney's Pocahontas.

Here's the summary: Klaus and Caroline see what their lives would be like if they'd never met. Needless to say, they aren't pleased with the results. But with limited time before the Hollow's dark magic starts consuming Klaus from the inside, their worst nightmare of having to live without each other in real life might be dangerously close to coming true.

This story is set during the series finale of The Originals, in the period of unaccounted for time between when Hope snaps Klaus's neck and when he wakes up at home in New Orleans. So this story diverts from canon as soon as that title card drops. The 'flashback' (it isn't really a flashback, you'll see) portion of this story diverts from canon during TVD episode 3x05, "The Reckoning" (aka the one where Klaus and Caroline meet).

There is dialogue taken from the show in some of the earlier 'flashbacks' which I don't claim to own. Nor do I own any of the many songs and popular culture references in this story.

The title for this story comes from a line from the song this gift was inspired by, "If I Never Knew You."

Happy reading!

* * *

Alaric led Lizzie and Josie back into the house a few minutes past eleven.

Caroline's eyes frantically searched all three faces, looking for some hint that they hadn't been able to complete the spell, some clue that Elijah had made it in time to stop them, some suggestion that together they had found another way to save Hope without needing to sacrifice Klaus.

But Lizzie's face was a guileless canvas of cheerfully smug satisfaction, Josie's wore the triumphantly exhausted expression that only came as a result of a job well done, and Alaric just looked resigned and sympathetic.

It was the sympathy that was the hardest to take.

Alaric took one look at Caroline's face and told the girls to go get ready for bed.

Once they were out of earshot, Alaric sat down on one of the couches in the common room and gestured for Caroline to sit beside him.

"So that's it, then?" Caroline asked, the silence suddenly too stiflingly heavy to bear. "The girls took the dark magic from Hope and put it in Klaus, who must have staked himself with the white oak stake in the time it took you to walk through the forest and back to the house. I should try to find Elijah, find out what the family's going to do now, and we'll have to work out a leave of absence for Hope—the poor thing's lost both of her parents in the span of only a few weeks. Remind me to tell the school psychologist to make herself available to Hope whenever she needs to talk, and remind me to set up a meeting with Hope and whichever Mikaelson is serving as her guardian now—it's probably Elijah because he and Klaus were so close, but he's been in France with amnesia for years now, he knows nothing about Hope's education…" the words spilled out of her like a rushing river in the absence of a dam.

"Caroline, you need to breathe," Alaric ordered.

He was looking at her like he was scared she was about to break. But she wasn't. She was Caroline Forbes, she'd survived loss before, and she was sure she would have to survive it again in the future. She was still standing, even after losing her father, her mother, and her husband, so there was no reason for Alaric to think that the death of Klaus Mikaelson, who she'd gone years without seeing or talking to, would be the one to send her over the edge.

Because even if she was willing to admit to herself (but never out loud, and especially never to Alaric, who'd shot him with a crossbow earlier that day), that she did have feelings for Klaus, she certainly didn't love him as much as she'd loved her parents or Stefan.

Caroline corralled her own thoughts. Love? She'd really thought the word 'love' in the same sentence as Klaus? Her thoughts were clearly starting to take on a life of their own, because she did not give them permission to insinuate that she loved Klaus. She'd always been attracted to him, she'd grown to maybe, perhaps, almost consider him a friend, and she now respected him as a fellow parent, but those feelings weren't love.

She felt…shortchanged, that's what it was. He had promised to be her last love, however long it takes, and now he was just going to sacrifice himself with no regard to the vow he'd made? Her relationship with Klaus was all about possibilities, about the whole wide world that was hers for the taking as soon as she was ready for Klaus to hand it to her on a silver platter. And now he was just cutting all of those possibilities short.

"He asked for you," Alaric told her. "Care, I think he was going to ask you to kill him."

Caroline's eyes widened.

That possibility would have never occurred to her. Yes, he'd extended the white oak stake towards her when he'd said that 'someone' would need to kill him when the spell was complete. But Klaus must have known that she couldn't do that, and he wouldn't have asked that of her. Wouldn't he?

"No," Caroline shook her head vehemently. "He wouldn't have put me in that position."

"Maybe he wouldn't have wanted to," Alaric conceded. "But is it really so hard to believe that he wanted the last person he ever saw to be you?"

Caroline couldn't think of anything she could say in response to that.

She should have been the last person her mother saw, but she hadn't been, and she would always regret it.

She was the last person her father saw, but that had only made her feel marginally better about his death.

She wasn't the last person Stefan saw, but she was the last person to know about his plan to sacrifice himself.

But she couldn't think about that.

She couldn't think about how today, she'd incontrovertibly equated Stefan's sacrifice with the one that Klaus planned to make. How she'd all but told Klaus that she would be equally as devastated at his death as she had been at Stefan's.

After ten years of the stages of grief, of self-reflection, of trying to move on, Caroline recognized that there was no way she could have stopped Stefan from sacrificing himself to save Damon and Elena, to give them their happy ending at the expense of her own.

In contrast, Klaus hadn't told her his plan at first because he hadn't wanted to know if she would stop him. If she hadn't tried to stop him, he would think that she didn't care whether he lived or died. If she had tried and succeeded, Hope would have died. If she had tried but failed, Klaus still would have sacrificed himself for Hope, but at least he would know that she cared about him.

Caroline had ended up choosing door number three, because, as she had told Klaus, he was being a good father and a good person, which was all she had ever wanted from him, but she didn't want Klaus to die, and she didn't want Hope to be an orphan. It seemed like the best option at the time, but now that she was facing the consequences of her choice, she wasn't so sure.

Her decisions to allow Lizzie and Josie to help him and to tell Elijah about Klaus's plan were made with a heavy cloud of guilt hanging over her head—because she'd known all along that she could stop Klaus from going through with his plan, and she'd always known what she would have to say.

As Stefan had told her once, she had Klaus wrapped around her little finger.

If she'd asked him to please not do this, if she'd cried, if she'd reminded him of all of the promises he'd made her, if she'd told him that she wanted to be with him or that she loved him; he would do whatever she asked of him.

But that would have been selfish.

As hard as the choices she'd been given were to make, Klaus's were worse: live and lose Hope, or die and hurt Hope and Caroline.

All he'd ever wanted, all at once, he'd said earlier. He wanted to live, he wanted Hope, and he wanted Caroline. And he'd found himself in a position where there was no way he could have all three at the same time.

"Well, I think that my presence is not adding anything to the internal monologue that is surely underway at Caroline-speed inside your head right now, so I'm going to go to bed," Alaric announced, standing up. He looked seriously at Caroline, as if he was trying to convey a message with his eyes. "For the record, I still think he's evil and I'm not sorry that the world is rid of him, but I am sorry that you got hurt."

Caroline just nodded, still not knowing what to say, or if there even was anything to say.

Keeping her eyes fixed on the front door, just in case this whole night was a hoax, or a bad dream, or the Mikaelsons had somehow pulled off another eleventh-hour miracle as they so often did, Caroline heard Alaric walk away, then the quiet click of his door closing.

Caroline sat silently in the common room, willing her brain to turn itself off. She didn't want to turn her humanity off—she'd done that once before, and it had been a mistake—she just wanted to stop thinking for a little while, so that maybe she could have a moment's peace before trying to make sense of the chaotic storm swirling through her mind and her heart.

"I have to do this spell," Caroline heard a voice whisper from the edge of the woods boarding the house. "We need to get her to want to help us."

There was no verbal response, just a resigned sigh.

"Do you what you must," a second voice conceded.

That voice was older, male, familiar. Caroline recognized it as belonging to Elijah Mikaelson.

The first voice had been less familiar, but Caroline still knew that she had heard it before. It was younger, unmistakably feminine. Older and lower-pitched than the twins, without the accent that would have immediately identified it as Rebekah. And she was talking about a spell that she wanted to perform, so she must be a witch. Logic told her that Elijah must be speaking to his niece.

"I just don't get it," Hope continued, tears audible in her voice. "Why didn't he tell anyone that he was planning this? Why did he want to do this in the first place? Why didn't he try to find another way, instead of telling me how proud he was of me and then sneaking off to sacrifice himself while I was in my wolf form and couldn't stop him? Didn't he want to live?"

Caroline wanted to scream at the girl that Klaus's desire to live wasn't the problem. Of course Klaus wanted to live. In a thousand years, he had only experienced one brief instance in which he wanted to be human, because he enjoyed being the most powerful creature on the planet; being strong, ageless, fearless—forever.

The problem was that as much as Klaus wanted to live, his love for his daughter had made him willing to sacrifice his own life to save hers.

"Your father thought that this was the only way to save you from the dark magic that was consuming you," Elijah lectured.

Klaus had told her the story: The four Original Vampires had each become a vessel for a quarter of a source of dark magic called the Hollow in order to prevent it from consuming Hope; they'd remained separate for seven years, until Hope had gotten so frustrated at her father's absence in her life that she kidnapped her own mother to lure Klaus back to New Orleans; after her mother's death, out of frustration with her father's inability to be near her without putting her in danger, Hope had taken the pieces of the Hollow and consumed them herself; Hope was being consumed by the dark magic, and the fact that she'd accidentally activated her werewolf curse hadn't helped matters.

Caroline was trying not to blame Hope for the mess they had found themselves in. She clearly had abandonment issues that weren't her fault, and the anger issues that were part and parcel of being an untriggered werewolf.

But there were times that Caroline thought that if Hope had just been able to rein in her anger and frustration, if she'd perhaps consulted a teacher or a family member before making rash decisions without thinking through the consequences, they might not be in this situation, or at least would have more time to find a solution.

"And he did tell someone about his plan," Elijah pointed out.

"That did him a lot of good," Hope scoffed sarcastically, her sadness giving way to the anger that new werewolves had an abundance of. "Even if she spent all day frantically looking for another solution, she still couldn't come up with anything, and she still didn't stop him from going through with it."

"She told me about Niklaus's plan, in the hopes that I would be able to stop him. Don't blame her, Hope; it was I who let her down, not her who let your father down. Based on her actions this evening, I would conclude that she already seems inclined to help us," Elijah told Hope.

So it wasn't another Mikaelson or a witch ally who they needed on their side, it was her. Well, Elijah was right, she would be happy to help them if she could. And not just because of her own ill-defined-but-more-positive-than-they'd-ever-been feelings towards Klaus. She'd lost her father when she wasn't much older than Hope, and she wouldn't wish that grief on anyone. If there was any way she could ease Hope's suffering, even a little, she would gladly do so.

Caroline stood and quickly made her way outside, ready to ask Hope and Elijah what it was they wanted her to do, but before she could get the words out, she heard Hope say, "I'm really sorry about this, Ms. Forbes," and then everything went black.

{ }

Elijah had nearly ruined everything.

He had just finished getting Hope settled in the room designed for werewolf transformations when his brother intercepted him on his way to the ritual that would release Hope from the death grip the Hollow had on her and allow him to shoulder the burden in her stead.

Elijah had made clear that he knew Klaus's plan, and the only person who could have told him was Caroline.

She didn't get nearly enough credit for her intelligence, Klaus had mused on his walk through the woods. She'd told him that the course of action he had chosen was that of a good father and a good person, and therefore, she couldn't justify standing in his way. So she hadn't. But she'd made no such promise to ensure that no one else stood in his way, once they found out what he meant to do.

He'd said that he didn't want to know if Caroline would have stopped him from sacrificing himself, but when presented with a question that appeared on its surface to only have two answers, Caroline had found a third—the only one that would give him everything he would need to see his plan through to the end: proof that she did care about him, at least enough to want him to live, and reassurance that, as much as they both hated the outcome, he had made the right choice and was finally doing right by his daughter.

He couldn't tell what broke his heart more, that he had finally made himself into a man that was worthy of her when he only had hours left to live, or that she couldn't even bring herself to say aloud that him doing so was all she ever wanted from him.

He wondered if Caroline had known that Elijah would offer himself as the sacrifice instead of Klaus. He wondered if Caroline had been all right with that, if she was determined to keep him alive, even if it meant his (better, braver, smarter, more stable, more noble, more moral) brother had to die.

As much as he didn't want his brother to die, he had to admit that the thought pleased him.

For a thousand years, Elijah had been the hero, and Klaus had been the villain, irredeemable in all but his brother's eyes.

But not to Caroline.

" _You weren't the villain of my story,"_ she'd told him earlier.

He remembered thinking it was odd, the way she'd said it, since Caroline should know better than most that life was not a fairy tale, and people weren't always neatly classified as either heroes or villains.

They'd passed the medical offices of Dr. Elena Salvatore on their way into town. The doppelganger had been Mystic Falls' collective pride and joy, yet she'd also killed his brother and the thousands of vampires he'd sired because she didn't want to be a vampire. To Mystic Falls, Elena could do no wrong. To Klaus, she was a selfish, judgmental, hypocritical murderer.

Caroline's reassurance that he wasn't a villain in her eyes had meant more to him that it probably should have to a thousand-year-old vampire who had long ago accepted, and even embraced, the fact that morality wasn't black and white but thousands of shades of every color in between.

But he'd needed the reassurance after Caroline had told him that she'd gone to New Orleans—to him—when she'd been scared and needed someone—needed him—to help keep her and her young daughters safe, and he hadn't been there for her when she needed him. And maybe it wasn't his fault that he hadn't been there, but he still felt that he should have been, still wished that he had been there—taking her hands to try to calm her anxious rambling, crouching down to be at eye level with her daughters as he introduced himself to them, promising all three of them that they would be safe with him.

When he'd arrived where Caroline's daughters were preparing for the spell, he immediately scanned the area for her, but she was nowhere to be found. So, he'd asked Alaric, who'd given some excuse about her not wanting to be in the woods while Hope was undergoing her werewolf transformation for the first time.

He saw through that excuse immediately. Alaric and the young witches had been there setting up for far longer than it had taken him to incapacitate Elijah and set Hope free to transform and run wild among the trees. If Caroline had ever intended to supervise her daughters as they performed the spell, she would have never seen or heard him pull Hope from the boarding house.

Then Alaric said something that truly stunned him for a moment.

" _She just couldn't watch you die_."

He had hoped that she would be present in his last moments, it was true. He hadn't wanted their last moments to be him leaning in to kiss her and her flinching away as the clock tower struck, reminding him of just how limited his time left on Earth was.

But he couldn't cause her anymore pain, not now.

That was his dilemma, of course. He could only hope that she cared enough about him that the idea of his death would hurt her, but he didn't want to see her hurt, especially not over him, who was so undeserving of her.

So he stepped inside the boundary the girls had created for the spell, hoping that Caroline would change her mind and join them, but knowing that she wouldn't.

Caroline's daughters didn't even look at him as they chanted, walking around the edges of the circular boundary they'd created.

The moment they siphoned the dark magic out of Hope and put it in him, Klaus shouted as the glowing blue light made contact with his chest in a reaction that looked like he was consuming the light when the magic was already starting to consume him.

Within seconds of completing the spell, Caroline's daughters were quickly whisked away by Alaric, as if he thought that the power that Klaus had absorbed was contagious and he didn't want the girls exposed.

In any other situation, Klaus would have laughed. Not only was the Hollow not in any way harmful to the girls, but Klaus was familiar with their lineage and knew that the Gemini Coven was full of dark magic of their own, something that, at thirteen, their latest set of twins would already be familiar with.

The girls hadn't seemed afraid of him, though. Either Alaric hadn't told them anything about him, or Caroline had told them about the good she'd seen in him. Or maybe both, and they'd cancelled each other out. And there was always the possibility that they'd simply chosen to ignore Alaric's warnings about him, which made Klaus like the girls that much more.

Klaus had listened intently as they bargained with Caroline over their reward for helping him. If it hadn't been his daughter's life on the line, he would have been amused, maybe even proud. Watching the impulsive, materialistic blonde and the calculating brunette negotiate was almost like watching little, teenaged-girl, school-uniform-clad versions of Rebekah and Elijah at work. Rebekah would scream and cry and demand what she wanted, and Elijah would strategize and persuade whoever needed to be persuaded that what the Mikaelsons wanted was also in their best interests. As powerful as they were on their own, no one stood a chance against them together. It was no wonder that Caroline eventually caved to most of their demands.

They hadn't fought Alaric when he'd pulled them away, and though it also could have been because it was cold and they were tired and they'd already accomplished what they set out to do, it supported Klaus's conclusion that the three women of the Forbes/Saltzman household spent their time humoring Alaric and his simultaneous fear of and immersion in the supernatural; agreeing to his face and then turning away and rolling their eyes at his hypocritical sense of moral superiority and his impossible need for control over something that was, by its very definition, beyond human control.

Alaric seemed to have appointed himself the moral authority on the supernatural, and had chosen to run a school for supernatural students so that he could mold them into what he considered a good person. Everyone was either good or bad to him, and once you made one mistake, there was no redeeming yourself in his eyes.

Klaus didn't care what Alaric thought of him. Alaric was getting on in years and would be dead soon enough anyway. Alaric could think Klaus was the most evil being to ever live and unworthy of living on the same planet as his daughters, and Klaus would carry on without giving Alaric's opinion of him a second thought.

But Klaus did care what Hope thought of him. What Caroline thought of him. Even what her daughters and his siblings thought of him.

As Klaus picked up the white oak stake and held it to his chest, he thought about the funeral his family would hold for him.

He hoped Caroline would attend. He pictured her wearing a black dress, her blonde hair curling on her shoulders, tears streaming silently down her face as she trailed after his coffin. Hope would be angry, stubbornly fighting for a way to bring him back, but Caroline would be stoic, regal in her grief. She would tell Hope to take comfort in the fact that he had given his life to save her; that he hadn't died in vain, but honorably, in the name of love and sacrifice.

That was what would get him through this, that picture of Hope crying into Caroline's shoulder, Caroline's arms around Hope as she tried to comfort her. Hope would need Caroline's strength after he was gone. Hope and Caroline, the two most important women in his life, were both strong, far stronger than he was. But while Hope's strength was a battering ram, knocking down anything and anyone that tried to stand in her way, Caroline's was made of an elastic resilience that allowed her to bend without breaking.

That was when Elijah showed up and nearly ruined everything for the second time that night.

He once again tried to stop Klaus from going through with his plan, clearly upset that he hadn't arrived in time to prevent Caroline's daughters from moving the Hollow into Klaus in the first place.

Because of his timing, Elijah's presence and pleas for Klaus to reconsider did little more than annoy him.

Unfortunately, they also distracted him.

He was just telling Elijah that this was his decision when he heard Hope's voice from behind him say, "And this is mine," and then everything went black.

{ }

When Caroline woke up, she was lying on a cold linoleum floor that looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she'd seen it before, especially since she'd almost certainly never seen it from this angle before.

She sat up, looking for some clue of where she was and what she was doing there.

It took Caroline only a second to realize that she was in a hallway at Mystic Falls High School, the rows of lockers and school spirit posters a dead giveaway.

There were two other people in the hallway, a couple embracing. The boy was dark-haired and wearing a grey tee-shirt and jeans, his arms around a blonde girl wearing a grey blouse, black cardigan, jeans, and ballet flats.

When the girl spoke, it was her words, rather than her voice, that made Caroline realize who they were.

"I just want everyone to be happy. Even in the midst of all the crazy, unhappy bits."

Caroline herself had said that to Tyler during Senior Prank Night, years ago.

In fact, when she spoke, the girl who Caroline now suspected was somehow the past version of herself had turned so that Caroline could see her more clearly, and she definitely recognized that outfit. Then she shifted again and Caroline could see her face.

Which was identical to her own.

Aside from her clothing, this other Caroline had slightly longer hair and her makeup was a little heavier, the way she'd worn it as a teenager.

Caroline looked down at herself. She was still wearing the coat, leggings, and over-the-knee boots she'd been wearing when she'd gone outside to meet Hope and Elijah.

Hope, who had wanted to do a spell to convince her to help them save Klaus.

The only explanation for why there were suddenly two Carolines was that this was a part of Hope's spell, though Caroline still didn't know what the spell would do.

Caroline and Tyler, the only people she'd seen since she had woken up, both looked like they had during their teenage years.

Had Hope managed to send Caroline back in time?

She was fairly certain that witches had not yet been able to use magic to time-travel, but if any witch was powerful enough, it would be Hope.

The idea made Caroline worry. If that was the case, Hope must want her to change something in the past, and she must have chosen this specific moment to send her back to. But Caroline had no idea what Hope wanted her to do, or why she'd sent her back so far in the past, when she would really only need to go back a few months to stop everything that had gone wrong in Hope's life recently—her mother's kidnapping, her mother's death, her absorbing the Hollow's magic, Klaus resolving to take the magic from her and kill himself so that it couldn't hurt anyone ever again. If that was all she needed to fix, Hope could have sent her back to the day she'd given Henry two vials of her blood and positioned her to interrupt the transaction before Hope set in motion a series of catastrophic events.

The other Caroline and Tyler hadn't noticed her yet, which was good, because she wasn't sure how she could explain the situation to them, especially since she knew that the first rule of time travel was to not change anything.

Caroline took a tentative step towards them.

Still, they didn't seem to notice her, either her movement or the sound her boots made as they landed on the floor.

Perhaps Caroline had watched too many Christmas movies, but her next thought was that Hope had magically manufactured some strange version of _It's a Wonderful Life_. No one had noticed her because she had landed in a world where she didn't exist.

Before she could come up with any possible reasons why Hope would want Caroline to see an alternate world in which she'd never been born, Caroline realized that of course she existed in this world, since there was another Caroline standing in the hallway with her.

No, this was more like _A Christmas Carol_. Hope wanted her to see something, some alternate version of her life where she'd made a different choice and everything turned out differently.

She was pondering what it was Hope wanted her to see when another set of footsteps approached.

The other Caroline didn't know who the blonde who already knew her and Tyler's names was, but Caroline sure did.

Rebekah.

And once she arrived, Caroline knew exactly why she'd been sent to this specific time and place.

Because Rebekah hadn't been the only person, or even the only Mikaelson, she'd met that night.

Caroline had met Klaus that night, too.

But why did Hope think that showing Caroline the night she met Klaus would make her want to help them save him?

She couldn't do anything but watch as Rebekah moved forward and snapped the other Caroline's neck, just as Caroline remembered her doing.

Caroline had quickly stepped forward, trying to intercept Rebekah, but even as she grabbed the other girl's arm, she still didn't seem to notice Caroline at all.

So Caroline couldn't intervene. To everyone in the past scene she was reliving, it was like she wasn't even there.

But because Caroline was there, she would get to see everything that happened that night that she had missed because Rebekah had snapped her neck.

Deciding to test how far she could venture away from the past, alternate version of herself, Caroline left the other Caroline lying on the ground and followed after Rebekah, who was dragging an uncooperative Tyler in the direction of the gym. She slipped through the doors after Rebekah flung them open, pulling Tyler along with her.

Elena, Bonnie, and Matt were inside, and so were two former classmates that Caroline only vaguely remembered.

And in the middle of the floor, at the center of everything, was Klaus.

Caroline couldn't help but say his name aloud when she saw him standing there, a wicked smirk on his face, looking more evil, and well… Klaus-like, than she'd ever seen him, making her realize how much Klaus had changed since she'd known him, and how much of an effort he must have made to be more gentle around her. Even when he'd bitten her, shouted at her, threatened her, he never looked so purely, senselessly evil like he did at that moment. Caroline had always been able to find the human part of Klaus, the part that had real emotions and was acting out because of them, but not now.

Klaus looked right through her, unseeing, as he forced Tyler to drink his blood, challenged Bonnie to find a way to make sure werewolves survived their transitions into hybrids, then snapped Tyler's neck.

Bonnie quickly left the gym with Matt, Rebekah pulling Tyler along behind her as she followed them out the doors.

Caroline decided to stay in the gym rather than follow either of them. She was fairly certain that Rebekah had dragged Tyler to the classroom where she remembered waking up when she'd lived through this night the first time. Her sense of time told her that it probably wouldn't be long until the other Caroline recovered from her broken neck and woke up. And if she could have intervened she would have followed Bonnie and Matt to tell them what they needed to know to save Tyler without Matt having to put his life in danger, but since she couldn't help them, she would rather not witness yet another occasion in which a friend put themselves in a life-or-death situation.

So Caroline stood still and watched as Stefan arrived and Klaus compelled him.

But as Stefan killed Dana, Caroline was fairly certain the girl's name was, she felt herself pulled out of the gym and into the chemistry lab where the other Caroline was just waking up, and Rebekah was sitting on the floor, searching through Caroline's old phone.

They had a brief conversation about Tyler's state, during which Rebekah continued to scroll through the other Caroline's pictures.

The Rebekah got to her feet and stomped angrily over to the other Caroline.

"Why is that doppelganger bitch wearing my necklace?" Rebekah demanded angrily.

As the past Caroline started to stammer out an answer, trying to process the new information that the necklace Stefan had given Elena used to belong to an Original vampire, the temperamental and impatient Rebekah reached out and snapped Caroline's neck again.

That hadn't happened last time.

Rebekah had asked about the necklace, then stormed out of the room, returning a few minutes later, then Tyler had woken up. That was what happened last time.

But apparently, although it hadn't before this moment, this alternate universe could deviate from the events of the past.

Caroline's mind raced through possible reasons for the change as she followed Rebekah back to the gym, where she screamed about her necklace to Klaus, who forced Elena to admit that Katherine had stolen it, then set a time limit on the scoreboard, compelling Stefan to drink Elena's blood if Bonnie wasn't able to find a way to keep Tyler alive after his transition within twenty minutes.

By the time she and Rebekah had returned to the classroom where Tyler was stirring and the other Caroline was still unconscious, Caroline was fairly certain she had her answer. She just wasn't sure she was ready to admit it, even to herself.

"Where am I? What happened?" Tyler asked groggily.

"You're in transition," Rebekah answered matter-of-factly. "If your witch friend can find a way to help you successfully complete the transition, you'll be my brother's first hybrid. Quite an honor, really. And if not, then you'll die."

"What happened to Caroline?" Tyler asked, noticing her body for the first time.

"She's just taking a nap," Rebekah said. "I'll admit, I lost my temper. But it might be a good thing for her and for you. She's out of harm's way, and if you die, she won't have to see it."

Tyler appeared to be considering this when Klaus strode briskly into the room.

"Well, the verdict's in. The original witch says the doppelganger should be dead," Klaus announced.

"Does that mean we can kill her?" Rebekah questioned excitedly.

"No, I'm fairly certain it means the opposite," Klaus replied.

"Elena's blood. Drink it," he instructed Tyler, holding up a test tube.

Within seconds, it was all over. Without Caroline's protests, Klaus hadn't needed to spend time assuring her and convincing Tyler to drink the blood. With the other Caroline lying still, Rebekah didn't need to restrain her as she had last time, leaving her free to help Klaus force Elena's blood down Tyler's throat. With their guidance, Tyler hadn't struggled to drink the blood, instead swallowing it as quickly as possible to get the process over with.

Klaus only noticed the other Caroline after Tyler had fallen to the floor, twitching and moaning in pain.

"I assume this pretty little thing was a victim of your quick temper, little sister?" Klaus idly touched one of the other Caroline's curls.

Whatever Rebekah would have said in response was lost as Tyler growled, his eyes turning yellow, with veins appearing under them, as he bared a mouth full of fangs.

"Well, that's a good sign," Klaus murmured appreciatively.

By the time the other Caroline woke up, Klaus, Rebekah, and Tyler were gone.

{ }

When Klaus woke up, he was in—if he wasn't mistaken—the cafeteria of Mystic Falls High School.

The last thing he remembered was his daughter sneaking up on him from behind and snapping his neck before he could plunge the white oak stake into his heart, but he had no idea why she would bring him here rather than her own school, or even to the car to take him home to New Orleans.

As Klaus contemplated what Hope had done and why, he realized that he couldn't feel the insidious, parasitic presence of the Hollow inside of him. He didn't have the blackened veins that he'd expected after seeing them on Hope. In this place at least, his mind and body were entirely his own.

His thought process was interrupted by the arrival of a hastily-moving figure through one of the multiple sets of double doors.

A figure that was a precise replica of himself from seventeen years earlier.

Klaus was distracted by thoughts of how much had changed since then, including himself. His past self's features were sharper, fiercer, harsher than his own; his posture predatory, like a snake poised to strike.

Had having a child changed him that much?

On the subject of his child, this place had Hope's devious fingerprints all over it. He was certain that it was his daughter's magic that had put him here, and though he wasn't entirely what 'here' was, he was sure that his body was safe in Hope and Elijah's care.

It wasn't exactly a chambre de chasse, since he was observing the scene rather than living it, but it must be similar in that the entire thing seemed to be taking place on a mental plane.

Though he did seem to be alone. Usually when Klaus had been pulled into a chambre de chasse, he was with his siblings.

Klaus heard feminine laughter before another set of double doors opened and the doppelganger appeared in the doorway, within arm's reach of the past version of Klaus.

"There's my girl," the other Klaus said.

"Klaus!" Elena gasped in surprise.

She turned around and attempted to run away, but the other Klaus used his vampire speed to block her escape.

"You are supposed to be dead. What are we going to do about that?" he taunted.

Klaus followed as the past version of himself gripped Elena tightly by the arm and pulled her quickly through the hallways until they reached the gym.

As the past version of Klaus threatened Elena and ordered the ordinary human students to leave, Klaus wondered why Hope had decided to show him this particular memory. Especially since it taken place years before she had been born. Yet she had somehow managed to manufacture a precise reproduction of the scene. Even if someone (Caroline?) had told her about the events of that night, there were details that she wouldn't have been able to copy because she hadn't been there, since no one would have bothered to tell her about what the random students participating in prank night looked like, or the low-cut purple shirt and sneakers that Elena wore all the time, or the exact position of the mascot painted on the gym floor, yet all of those things were faithfully replicated.

Hope must have pulled this memory out of his own mind, though why she'd been looking for it or what spell she had used it for he didn't know.

He watched as the past version of himself tormented the occupants of the gym: Elena, the humans Dana and Chad, the Bennett witch and the human Matt when they arrived.

Then, when Rebekah brought Tyler in, he forced the werewolf to drink his blood then snapped his neck, ordering Bonnie to find a way to ensure he survived his transition.

After years spent with no contact with them, Klaus had almost forgotten how dramatic the vampire population of Mystic Falls could be. He had to restrain himself from laughing at Stefan's entrance, at the melodramatic interactions between Stefan and Elena. Stefan threw promises of loyalty and obedience at Klaus, then attempted to attack him when he struck Elena.

For someone who saw himself as honorable, Stefan wasn't reliable when it came to keeping his word.

Klaus did let out a chuckle when the past version of himself echoed his sentiment. Apparently his opinion of the younger Salvatore brother (or the older, to be quite honest) hadn't improved with time.

Klaus let his mind wander as the past version of himself compelled Stefan to obey his every command.

This night obviously had considerable significance to the supernatural world, as it was the first time that Klaus had successfully created a hybrid. But it also had considerable personal significance to Klaus, as it was the night he met Caroline.

Klaus wasn't sure what, if anything, Caroline had told Hope about their relationship. His daughter had never mentioned Caroline, in the context of either of their relationships with her, yet at times she would emulate her in a way that reminded Klaus of just how much time Hope had spent with Caroline over the last seven years. Klaus had concluded that Hope couldn't possibly know how much Klaus cared for Caroline, that he would do nearly anything to keep her safe and happy, or the promises he had made her. If she had, instead of accidentally inciting a war between vampire supremacists and every other supernatural population in New Orleans that didn't share their philosophy, Hope would have simply walked down to Caroline's office and asked her to call him, knowing that even if he was ignoring Hope's calls, he would have answered the second Caroline's name appeared on his screen.

His thoughts were interrupted by an irate Rebekah storming into the gym, shrieking about the necklace Stefan had stolen from her and then given to Elena.

His sister had always been dramatic, but she had matured considerably over the last decade—since Hope was born, really. Klaus had never stopped to think about how the months that Rebekah had looked after Hope all on her own had changed her, as focused as he had been on how the time spent away from his child had affected him.

As proud as Klaus was of Rebekah's character growth in the present, in the past, he was clearly annoyed by her antics. The past version of himself halfheartedly interrogated Elena about the location of the necklace, believing her easily when she said that Katerina had interfered.

Not wanting to witness any of the surely sickeningly heartfelt promises and declarations between Stefan and Elena that he had been fortunate enough to not hear last time, Klaus followed the past version of himself and Rebekah as they left the gym after starting the clock.

Klaus passed the twenty minute time limit by returning to his contemplations of why Hope had wanted him to relive this night.

She couldn't have overheard his conversation with Elijah about Caroline telling his brother about his plan. She wouldn't have seen his many drawings of Caroline he'd done over the years, or the letter and check he'd mailed to Caroline when she'd first started at the school. She couldn't have heard about their relationship from Rebekah or Kol, since she hadn't seen them in person for years either, and he knew his siblings wouldn't waste what little time they could spend talking to their niece on stories from years past.

While his gut instinct may have told him that Hope's plan was about Caroline, the more rational part of his mind reasoned that this had to be about hybrids. If Hope could stop Klaus from figuring out how to make hybrids, the entire course of their family's history would change from that moment.

Klaus followed as the past version of himself engaged in a brief exchange with Bonnie and Matt, then intercepted Elena as she tried to run from Stefan, who was doing everything he could, even going so far as to cause himself physical harm, to keep himself from hurting her.

"Now this is fascinating. I've never seen this before. The only thing stronger than your craving for blood is your love for this one girl," the past version of Klaus observed.

Klaus couldn't believe that Caroline had married Stefan, when getting him to admit that he cared for Caroline was like pulling teeth, yet he forced himself to resist Klaus's compulsion to drink Elena's blood, with strength and determination born from his love for Elena, the likes of which Klaus had never seen even after living for a thousand years. Klaus had made Stefan promise to do right by Caroline; a promise that Stefan had clearly never kept—repeatedly prioritizing Damon and Elena over Caroline without even sparing a thought to her feelings. It baffled Klaus that even after Stefan had sacrificed his own life so that Damon could live happily ever after with Elena, both of whom would remember Stefan fondly as the noble hero who sacrificed himself to save them and the town, without even telling Caroline that he was planning to do so, she still wore his rings around her neck, honoring him in death more than he had ever respected her when he was alive.

Would Caroline honor him the same way after his death? Klaus made a note to tell Elijah to return Caroline's bracelet to her. It wasn't quite the same thing, didn't have quite the same weight to it, as a ring, but he doubted that she would feel entirely comfortable wearing them together.

The moment that he had met Caroline was growing nearer, Klaus recognized the series of events as the past version of himself compelled Stefan to turn off his humanity.

When Klaus left this room, he would go to the classroom where Caroline, Rebekah, and Tyler were. He would spar with Rebekah over whether or not they needed to kill Elena; he would try to reassure Caroline that Tyler needed to drink Elena's blood, as unappealing as the thought was to her; and he would implore Tyler to drink the blood, which would successfully complete his transition into Klaus's first surviving hybrid.

But that wasn't what happened this time.

Instead of staring at him as he walked into the room, her beautiful eyes challenging, brimming with disgust and dislike, Caroline was lying across one of the lab tables.

Klaus immediately concluded that Rebekah must have snapped Caroline's neck, something that she hadn't done when this night had actually happened, and that Hope was magically manipulating his memory, trying to show him something that seemed to hinge upon him not speaking to Caroline as he had originally.

"Well, the verdict's in. The original witch says the doppelganger should be dead," the past version of Klaus announced.

"Does that mean we can kill her?" Rebekah questioned excitedly.

"No, I'm fairly certain it means the opposite," Klaus replied.

"Elena's blood. Drink it," he instructed Tyler, holding up a test tube.

Within seconds, it was all over. Without Caroline's protests, Klaus hadn't needed to spend time assuring her and convincing Tyler to drink the blood. With the other Caroline lying still, Rebekah didn't need to restrain her as she had last time, leaving her free to help Klaus force Elena's blood down Tyler's throat. With their guidance, Tyler hadn't struggled to drink the blood, instead swallowing it as quickly as possible to get the process over with.

The other Klaus (a far inferior specimen, Klaus decided) only noticed Caroline after Tyler had fallen to the floor, twitching and moaning in pain.

"I assume this pretty little thing was a victim of your quick temper, little sister?" the other version of Klaus idly touched one of Caroline's curls.

Whatever Rebekah would have said in response was lost as Tyler growled, his eyes turning yellow, with veins appearing under them, as he bared a mouth full of fangs.

"Well, that's a good sign," Klaus murmured appreciatively.

The past version of Klaus and Rebekah dragged Tyler out of the room, leaving an unconscious Caroline behind, and leaving Klaus certain of why Hope had wanted him to relive this memory:

He hadn't met Caroline.

{ }

Caroline made note of the changes between her real past and this alternate reality as Damon and Bonnie informed the other Caroline of everything she'd missed that night while she'd been unconscious.

Klaus had left town to look for more werewolves to turn into hybrids, taking Rebekah, Elena, and Tyler with him. This time, without Caroline there to argue on Tyler's behalf, he had completed his transition more quickly, and Klaus and Rebekah had taken him with them when they left the school rather than leaving him behind to say goodbye to her with the intent of picking him up later. Those few minutes earlier that Klaus, Rebekah, and Tyler had left had made all the difference when it came to Elena, since they had taken her from the hospital and left just as Damon had arrived, missing them by mere seconds.

A still-humanity-less Stefan had been left behind: both to punish him for his insubordination by separating him from Elena, and because Klaus didn't need him anymore now that he had Tyler—his first successful hybrid.

As Damon informed everyone who had been at the school the night before what he, Katherine, and Jeremy had been up to, Caroline let her mind wander.

The other Caroline hadn't met Klaus at Prank Night like the real Caroline had.

Hope hadn't just been showing Caroline her own memories, she had changed a very significant moment, and Caroline knew Hope well enough to know that she had done so for what she saw as a very good reason.

But until she made it out of this alternative universe and back into the real world, Caroline had to figure out why Hope had done this to her, if there was anything she could do to undo what Hope had done and get herself back home, and keep track of all of the consequences of her not meeting Klaus and how that one small change had led to larger differences between the real world and this alternate reality, starting with Tyler's and Elena's absences.

If Stefan and Damon were busy trying to find and rescue Elena, then they wouldn't be… how were Stefan and Damon getting themselves into trouble at this time? Right, this was when they had tried to use Mikael to kill Klaus, only to have that plan backfire as Stefan and Damon's plans so often did.

Especially since Caroline knew right now that their plan couldn't work in this alternate timeline. Elena wasn't there to dagger Rebekah, who wasn't there to be daggered. Rebekah was with Klaus, not in Mystic Falls, so she wouldn't be there to verify Stefan's information about Mikael being there. Katherine couldn't pretend to be Elena, since Klaus would know that Elena was with him. And Tyler wouldn't be able to make sure that Caroline was out of harm's way while everyone else put the plan into action.

Without the plan to lure Klaus back to town using Mikael, Caroline didn't know if Klaus would ever return to Mystic Falls.

If that was the case, then the other Caroline would never meet Klaus.

On the heels of that revelation was another: that must have been the purpose of Hope's spell; to show Caroline what her life would look like without Klaus so that she would help Hope and Elijah save his life in order to avoid having to live without him for real.

If Caroline had known that that was Hope's plan, she could have told her that it wasn't necessary. She'd meant what she'd said to Klaus when she'd reunited with him in Paris: she did think that he was someone worth knowing.

She wanted Klaus in her life and in Hope's life. She wanted to have the chance to get to know Klaus as he was now—as a parent who had made incredible sacrifices for his child, who had finally been able to reunite with the family he had fought so hard to protect, who had experienced love, loss, pride, guilt, triumph, and defeat in the years they'd spent apart. She wanted Hope to get to know her father, not as the hero she'd idolized as a little girl or as the monster she'd heard rumors about as a teenager, but as the complex individual he was.

Unfortunately for Caroline, it appeared that figuring out why she was being forced to watch an alternate version of her life was not the key to escaping it, because nothing changed.

Caroline still stood in the living room of the Salvatore boarding house, watching and listening as Stefan, Damon, Bonnie, Jeremy, Matt, and the alternate version of herself discussed what they could do to try to get Elena and Tyler back.

She supposed that made sense. Hope wanted her to see what her life would look like without Klaus. The spell clearly wouldn't have its intended effect if it allowed her to return to the present as soon as she realized how what she was seeing deviated from her memories.

Tuning out the Salvatores' latest hare-brained scheme, Caroline tried to think of what else would change in this alternate universe where the alternate version of herself had never met Klaus.

The other Caroline would never be asked to play the distraction while everyone else tried to kill Klaus and his siblings. Tyler wouldn't disappear to try to break the sire bond, since he would never find out it was even possible, and therefore, the other hybrids he helped break their sire bonds wouldn't be killed, and so neither would Carol Lockwood. Elena wouldn't spend the next however many months it was looking over her shoulder, constantly vigilant, knowing Klaus could try to abduct her at any minute. Bonnie wouldn't be forced to do Klaus's, and then Esther's bidding. The Salvatores wouldn't be competing over Elena, instead working together to save her.

With every consequence came a new question. Would Elena still become a vampire? It wouldn't be under the same circumstances, but it seemed like anything could be possible here. Would they all still search for the cure? There were so many things—Jeremy's death, Elena turning off her humanity, Katherine becoming human and dying, everything that Stefan had suffered through because he was Silas's doppelganger—that might not happen if they didn't. Would Hope still be born? It wasn't entirely inconceivable that Klaus might run into Hayley on his cross-country search for werewolves to turn into hybrids.

There was no way of knowing who would live or die depending on what changed, but Caroline had a feeling that she would survive. She didn't have any proof, just a gut feeling, but if Hope wanted her to see what her life would look like without Klaus, it didn't make sense to cut her life tragically short.

Caroline supposed that she would just have to wait and see what happened next.

{ }

While Klaus didn't appreciate his alternate self's lack of attention to Caroline, he had to admit that he did have some good ideas.

He stayed focused, moved quickly, and was able to leave Mystic Falls with the doppelganger and his hybrid, exactly according to his plans, just as Damon Salvatore arrived to carry out some hastily thrown together rescue mission to save them.

Yet looking at the scene—a triumphant Klaus and Rebekah in the front seat of the truck, an exhausted Tyler and Elena in the back—Klaus couldn't bring himself to resent Caroline for inadvertently derailing his plan to create more hybrids when she'd challenged him to try to save Tyler and Elena.

In fact, Klaus pitied the other version of himself for not having the pleasure of interacting with Caroline.

He had to wonder if the alternate version of himself would ever get to meet Caroline, since he didn't seem to have any plans or reasons to go back to Mystic Falls.

How sad it would be for the other Klaus if he never got to meet Caroline, if he had to live without her light infiltrating his world.

Everything he ever wanted, all at once, he'd said. And none of those things were the hybrids that his past self had been so determined to create.

They didn't matter. Hope mattered, Caroline mattered, his siblings mattered, but the hybrids didn't matter.

The other version of himself would just have to figure that out on his own.

Because what would he have? Rebekah at his side while he made hybrids using a captive Elena's blood. He wouldn't have the rest of his family: he wouldn't even know that Freya existed or that Marcel was alive, he wouldn't have Caroline, he wouldn't have Hope—a loophole, an exception to a rule he'd never questioned, couldn't be an inevitability in every possible path his life could have taken. The odds of him running into Hayley on this trek were slim to none, as he had no idea where she'd lived in between her birth in New Orleans and when she'd turned up in Mystic Falls twenty years later, and Hope wouldn't be Hope if the stars hadn't aligned in the exact way that they had.

On the other hand, Kol wouldn't die, since he was still daggered in his coffin in the back of the truck. Alaric wouldn't become an Original-vampire-killing monster with his mother still sealed in her coffin. Alaric wouldn't kill him and Bonnie wouldn't need to move him into Tyler's body. Finn wouldn't die either. If only his siblings knew the danger they found themselves in when left to their own devices, they might appreciate how seriously he took their safety.

In fact, this alternate universe seemed to offer a more desirable fate to nearly everyone. The other Klaus got to create hybrids. Caroline wouldn't get bitten by any hybrids. Caroline's father wouldn't die, since he wouldn't come back to Mystic Falls to help Tyler. Matt wouldn't have to spend any time with Rebekah, which he knew from experience would definitely improve the boy's quality of life. Tyler would never find out the sire bond could be broken, so the other Klaus would never want to kill him, or actually kill his mother. Bonnie would never be forced to reunite with her mother. The Salvatores would be free from their train wreck of a love triangle. Elena wouldn't become a vampire.

And yet, even with all of these advantages, Klaus still would gladly have rather lived the life he did live, so that he would have Hope and Caroline and his family in his life.

Was that Hope's plan, to show him that he was happy that she had been born, that even after everything her existence had put him through, even as he prepared to sacrifice his own life to save her, he had no regrets?

He knew that selfishness was a Mikaelson family trait that they all suffered from, but that didn't sound like Hope.

As much as Klaus might want to think that he had passed on to Hope only his very best characteristics, he knew that genetics didn't work that way. He'd given his daughter whatever artistic talent he possessed, his impervious resilience, his hardheaded stubbornness, and his relentless determination, but other than that, they had little in common aside from both having blue eyes. Hope's bravery, like Hayley's, was born from a sense of loyalty and justice, principled to the point of at times reaching self-righteous indignation, rather than his own calculated self-interest. Their strength was accompanied by a grace that could convince anyone that being strong wasn't a choice or an acquired skill, but an automatic reaction. Hope's temper, like Hayley's, had a slightly longer fuse than Klaus's. And while Hope had inherited her fierce protectiveness and desire for independence from both of them, her werewolf instincts surely came from Hayley, who had still identified herself as a wolf even after years as a hybrid. Hope was half cunning Mikaelson witch and half strong, loyal Crescent wolf, and while she could be dangerously impulsive and strong-willed, Klaus had never known her to be self-centered.

No, Klaus was sure that while Hope had been the one to trap him in this alternate world, this wasn't about her, or proving to him that she was worth sacrificing for. He already knew that, and despite everything they'd been through and all of her life that he'd missed, he knew that she knew it, too.

The phrasing of his thought gave him pause: all of her life that he'd missed. He had missed years of Hope's life. And Caroline's life. He'd only just met Caroline's daughters at the age of thirteen.

The main difference between the life he was now forced to observe and the one he'd actually lived was that this other version of Klaus had never met Caroline. Hers was the life he had missed, not Hope's.

Hope wanted him to see his life without Caroline, so that he would…

No, so that he wouldn't want to live without her, after seeing how inferior a life without her was. And in order to not live without her, he would have to live.

Within moments, Klaus had assembled what he felt was a reasonable timeline of Hope's thought process: after she'd snapped his neck, Elijah must have told her that Caroline had told him about the plan; Hope, as calculating as any Mikaelson, must have come to the conclusion that as the only person Klaus trusted enough to let in on his plan, even when he hadn't told his brother who was usually his closest confidante, Caroline was their only chance to stop him; then Hope had cast the spell to show him what his life would have been like if he'd never met Caroline in order to make him want to live, if only so that he wouldn't have to leave her again.

He also assumed that while he was under this spell, Hope and the rest of his family were frantically searching for any other solutions to eliminate the dark magic now festering inside of him.

It was a sound plan, Klaus had to admit with a fair amount of pride. The spell kept Klaus out of the way while everyone else tried to save him, while trying to convince him that he wanted to find an alternative solution without anyone having to waste their precious, limited time arguing with him.

As the other Klaus drove west, Klaus was left with a lingering question that he wouldn't have an answer to until he woke up: how did Caroline fit into this plan?

{ }

It only took a few weeks for Stefan and Damon to start leaving Caroline out of their plans to find and rescue Elena.

The other Caroline was making a valiant effort to settle into a new routine that didn't include her boyfriend and one of her best friends, throwing herself into her schoolwork and extracurricular activities. She spent a lot of time with Matt, who, as their lone human, was also left out of the Salvatores' schemes, while Bonnie and Jeremy spent most of their days holed up in the boarding house.

So while the four of them were working on a rescue effort similar to the one Damon had used that summer to keep track of Klaus and Stefan, the other Caroline devoted her time to planning the Homecoming dance.

She chose the theme and bought decorations for the gym. She picked out her dress. She designed and sold tickets. She was resigned to her fate of not having a date to her last Homecoming, but she, Bonnie—who wasn't speaking to Jeremy after the cheating-on-her-with-his-dead-exes fiasco that had been the same as real life since it hadn't involved Klaus—and Matt were planning to hang out at the dance, since none of them had dates and Stefan wasn't planning on going.

Then Damon informed her that her Homecoming dance was going to be the setting for their plot to have Mikael kill Klaus.

Their plan was similar to the one that had actually been carried out. Stefan would call Klaus, telling him that Mikael was in Mystic Falls, though without Elena, he wouldn't be daggered. Presumably, Klaus would come to try to kill Mikael before his father could kill him. Stefan and Damon were also hoping that Klaus would bring Elena with him when he returned so that they could try to steal her away from him.

(Caroline already knew that that would never happen. Looking back, she would never understand how the Salvatores never learned that Klaus was so much smarter than they were, and that by continually acting like he was stupid, they were setting themselves up for failure.)

From there, Stefan had explained, Mikael would take over, finding Klaus and staking him with the white oak stake before he had a chance to fight back. Stefan and Damon would be responsible for incapacitating any hybrids that Klaus brought with him, Bonnie would offer magical assistance in any way she could, depending on what Klaus did and who he brought with him, and Jeremy was there to keep channels of communication to the Other Side open.

When the other Caroline asked what her role in the plan would be, Damon only offered a snarky, "Just try to stay out of our way."

She hadn't participated in this particular mission in real life either, since Tyler had used vervain to incapacitate her and taken her home. There was little chance of the same thing happening at this version of the dance, but it seemed her presence was still not required.

Stefan's humanity-free period had been rough on Caroline, who considered Stefan a friend, even though they weren't best friends at that point. Between him and Damon, Stefan was usually the one who made an effort to include and protect everyone, though his priorities were always Elena and Damon. Damon didn't even make an attempt to cover up his willingness to leave all of them to die as long as Elena (and himself) were safe.

As the day of the dance dawned, the other Caroline congratulated herself for choosing a dress that wasn't white, because she was sure the dance would get bloody by the end.

Even though they didn't want her involved in the plan, the Salvatores were still keeping the other Caroline apprised of what was happening through text messages.

She received an alert while she was curling her hair that Klaus had crossed the Mystic Falls town limits. Her phone chimed again while she was painting on her eyeliner, letting her know that, as they had planned, Klaus had first stopped at the boarding house, where Stefan and Damon had informed him that Mikael planned to kill him at the dance so that he would have an audience. She had just finished zipping herself into her dress when she received another notification, this one informing her that Mikael and Klaus were both on their way to the high school.

The other Caroline hurriedly replied that she was on her way before grabbing her keys and rushing out the door.

As the other Caroline ran through the pale pink and gold balloon archway in front of the gym's open doors, Caroline watched in horror at the scene unfolding inside the gym.

The model Eiffel Tower that the other Caroline had purchased and painstakingly covered with strategically placed Christmas lights had been pushed over, the lights scattering across the floor. The cream-colored curtains that she'd had screen-printed with the silhouettes of the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, and the Palace of Versailles, and hung to hide the bleachers had been torn and stained with blood. More lights in pink and warm white had fallen to the floor. Pink and white paper flowers and glittery gold ribbons were everywhere, hanging askew or crumpled. The DJ booth was in pieces, the first line of 'Je Ne Regrette Rien' repeating on a loop as the CD skipped.

And in the center of the gym was a burning corpse with a stake sticking out of his chest.

Caroline felt a split second of panic and fear, terrified for only an instant that something had finally gone right for the Salvatores in this alternate universe, before it sunk in that it was Mikael lying dead on the floor, not Klaus.

The other Caroline screamed, and Caroline almost had to laugh because she wasn't sure what the alternate version of herself was more upset by: the dead vampire, or the ruined dance decorations.

Caroline's heart went out to the other version of herself, completely able to empathize with the devastation she must be feeling. Her 'Romantic Parisian Rendezvous' Homecoming had become something out of a horror movie.

Caroline (well, both Carolines) were the only people still in the room as they both surveyed the damage.

Stefan and Damon entered the gym a few minutes later, both looking defeated.

"What happened?" the other Caroline asked. "I know I was fashionably late by a few minutes, but I can't believe I missed everything."

"Well, believe it, Blondie," Damon retorted. "Even your convenient absence could not salvage our plan. Klaus was here, with about a dozen of his new hybrids, he killed Mikael, and now he's gone."

"Elena and Tyler?" the other Caroline timidly asked.

"Not here," Stefan answered shortly. "We never saw either of them."

"Did anyone else get hurt?" the other Caroline asked.

"No, Bonnie got everyone out," Stefan replied. "Like you said, the dance had only just started, so there weren't many people here yet. They all left pretty quickly once Bonnie pulled the fire alarm."

That made sense. Bonnie, being Bonnie, would want to protect the lives of innocent students in any way she could. Fortunately for her in this universe, there had been fewer bystanders and an easy, accessible way to evacuate them all.

"Little Gilbert and the quarterback weren't here either," Damon commented. "And I wish I hadn't been here. It's all over. We have nothing else to use as leverage over Klaus, nothing to bargain with. He's just going to travel around the world creating his hybrid army using Elena's blood, and there's nothing we can do about it. She's gone, and she's never coming back."

With that, Damon trudged out of the gym, no doubt headed for the Grill to drown his sorrows in bourbon. Stefan followed with a shrug, leaving the Carolines alone once more.

As the other Caroline sighed and started to clean up the ruined decorations, Caroline paused to make notes of the ways that Homecoming had been different in this alternate timeline than in her real life.

Both scenarios had ended with the same result: Klaus killing Mikael. But in this alternate timeline, Klaus had crashed the Homecoming dance rather than moving it, since Tyler wasn't there to offer his house as an alternate location, and Klaus hadn't settled into his own mansion in town until after Mikael's death. Without Katherine's duplicity, plus Stefan's compulsion, the fight between Klaus and Mikael couldn't have been a fair one, even though Klaus hadn't had the advantage of having it on his territory. Caroline remembered being impressed by Tyler's—which were actually Klaus's—party planning skills on such short notice, and was somewhat surprised that he hadn't done something similar, then quickly realized that without Tyler's house or his own, he had nowhere to host such an extravagant event. And since Rebekah wasn't daggered or in Mystic Falls, he had probably left immediately in order to celebrate their father's death with her.

And once again, the other Caroline had narrowly avoided meeting Klaus.

{ }

Klaus hadn't been surprised when the alternate version of himself received a call from Stefan insisting that Mikael was in Mystic Falls, threatening to kill him.

The other Klaus scoffed. Death threats from Mikael were nothing new, nor was Stefan lying to try to save the doppelganger.

Then he heard that chilling voice over the phone.

"Hello, boy," Mikael drawled.

Both Klauses pretended to be unaffected as they recalled years of torment at Mikael's hands.

He hadn't had to hear Mikael when this had really happened. He had been daggered, he remembered Stefan telling him that. In this timeline however, Elena was with him, and unless the Salvatore brothers had suddenly started trusting Matt Donovan with anything more important than serving their drinks at the Grill, that meant they didn't have a human available to dagger Mikael. In addition, without Rebekah there to vouch for their story, they needed another way to prove that they were telling the truth.

Stefan quickly rattled off the story: Katherine had found and awakened Mikael, who had turned up in Mystic Falls intent on killing Klaus and threatening to kill Stefan and his brother if he wasn't able to fulfill his goal.

Naturally, Klaus—in any timeline—was more concerned about the threat on his life—since Mikael must have been in possession of a white oak stake—than he was worried about the Salvatores becoming collateral damage.

It was unnerving for Klaus to see that calculating look that appeared on his copy's face as he spoke to Stefan—like the visual equivalent of hearing your own voice recorded.

He knew that the other version of himself was considering his options, and not particularly liking any of them. He could continue running from Mikael and just hope that his father never found him; or he could go to Mystic Falls and try to kill Mikael once and for all before he could kill him.

Mikael had been brought down by a Bennett witch over a decade earlier, and Klaus, though determined to break his curse, had been relatively content without having to look over his shoulder, never staying in any one place for too long, constantly vigilant in case Mikael appeared out of the shadows.

Klaus knew that the other Klaus had come to the same conclusion, and was leaning towards the riskier option, but the one that, if it all went according to plan, would mean he would never have to worry about Mikael ever again—or, at least until Davina brought him back to life again, but the other Klaus didn't know that.

He was a hybrid now, and he had an army of sired hybrids to fight by his side. He had never been stronger or better prepared to finally defeat Mikael once and for all.

"Stefan," the other Klaus sharply interrupted his rambling. "I will return to Mystic Falls immediately. Mikael is not going to kill you and your brother. I am going to kill him."

With that, the other Klaus hung up the phone and prepared to leave.

As the alternate version of himself convinced Rebekah to stay in Portland with Tyler, Elena, and their family to keep them away from Mikael and the Salvatores, Klaus felt his spirits lift as he realized that he would soon get to see Caroline again. He remembered that she had been present at the Homecoming dance turned wake.

Which had taken place at Tyler's house, and Tyler wasn't coming to Mystic Falls with the other Klaus. So the wake wouldn't happen in this alternate timeline.

Still, no school-sponsored event took place without Caroline's presence, so Klaus was sure he would see her.

When both Klauses arrived in Mystic Falls, however, he was less certain. The other Klaus headed straight for the Salvatore boarding house, where he was informed by Stefan and Damon that Mikael had gone to the high school, wanting to kill Klaus in front of an audience of unsuspecting students.

So they immediately turned around and went to the school, Stefan and Damon following close behind.

When they arrived, Klaus saw an arch made of light pink and gold balloons in front of the nearest set of doors into the gym, which were propped open.

It hadn't escaped his notice that Caroline would have been responsible for that and everything else that was a part of the dance, and that Mikael and the other Klaus would surely destroy all of her hard work in a matter of minutes.

The Bennett witch joined Stefan and Damon, parking her car next to theirs and walking as quickly as she could to try to keep up.

When they entered the gym, Mikael was standing in the center of it, a small group of students milling around, barely paying him any attention as the danced or chatted among themselves.

What they all noticed more than the dance's decorations or attendees was the deadly white oak stake that Mikael was carelessly twirling in his hand.

"Hello, Niklaus," Mikael greeted flatly.

"Hello, Mikael," the other Klaus responded, equally tonelessly.

"It makes it much easier for me that you've surrendered, alone. You must have just gotten lucky, all of those years running from me, since you've proven tonight that you don't have the brains to outsmart me," Mikael taunted.

"Bonnie, let's see if we can't make this showdown a little more private," Damon murmured, hoping that Mikael and the other Klaus would be too busy with their verbal sparring to notice him.

Bonnie nodded, striding quickly over to the opposite wall and pulling the fire alarm. The students at the dance—no more than fifty total—all rapidly made their way out of the gym.

"You think I'm alone? So literal. No imagination. That must be such a hindrance, this inability of yours to see anything that isn't right in front of your face," the other Klaus shot back.

Mikael laughed.

"You think these two are on your side?" Mikael gestured to Stefan and Damon. "They're on my side. They are the ones who sought me out so that I would kill you for them."

"And you let them use you to do their dirty work? You fancy yourself a mastermind, but you do the bidding of two vampires one-tenth of your age," the other Klaus mocked.

Right on schedule, ten of the other Klaus's newly turned hybrids arrived, standing close together and blocking the door.

"Excellent, right on time," the other Klaus clapped his hands together. "Friends, this is my despicable stepfather Mikael. Mikael, these are some of the hybrids."

Mikael shook his head.

"The big bad wolf. You haven't changed. Still hiding behind your playthings like a coward."

"I don't need them. I just need to be rid of you."

That exchange was familiar to Klaus, even though the rest of the conversation was new. Which meant Mikael's most crushing blow was imminent.

"To what end, Niklaus? So you can live forever, with no one at your side? Nobody cares about you any more, boy! What do you have other than those whose loyalty you forced? No one. No one."

And there it was.

But Klaus knew that Mikael was wrong. He did have people who cared about him: Elijah, Rebekah, Freya, Kol, Marcel. Hope. Caroline.

If there was a way to save him and he did get to live forever, he would have them by his side.

The other Klaus didn't know this, though, so he seemed upset by Mikael's statement just as Klaus had been in the past.

He rushed forward, intent on taking the white oak stake from Mikael's hands.

Mikael laughed again, easily dodging Klaus's attack.

"Your impulse, Niklaus. It has and will forever be the one thing that keeps you from truly being great."

The ensuing fight destroyed the room in mere minutes. Lights fell and were crushed, the DJ booth toppled over and equipment was broken, a replica of the Eiffel Tower was knocked down.

Neither Klaus took their eyes off the white oak stake as Mikael attacked and the other Klaus dodged his attempts. The Bennett witch was nowhere to be found, and the Salvatores kept a small distance to avoid being hurt in the fight.

Until Damon reached forward and managed to wrench the white oak stake from Mikael's hands.

Mikael yelled, and the other Klaus took a step backwards.

"Sorry, but this is a little more personal for me than misdirected anger over your wife cheating," Damon told Mikael.

When Damon was within arm's reach of the other Klaus, the white oak stake centimeters from his heart, the other Klaus reached out and gripped Damon's heart in his hand.

"No!" Stefan shouted.

They stood there at an impasse for only a brief moment before Stefan knocked the stake out of Damon's hand, sending it clattering to the floor. The other Klaus turned away from Damon, and just as Klaus had done when this really happened, grabbed the stake and quickly stabbed Mikael through the heart with it.

He tossed the body away from him, leaving it on the floor in the center of the gym just as it started to burn.

The other Klaus turned to Stefan.

"I appreciate you stopping your brother from doing something he'd regret, mate," he told the younger vampire.

"Well, if you're offering a thank you gift, would you consider giving me my freedom from your compulsion?" Stefan requested.

The other Klaus chuckled, but nodded.

"Thank you my friend. You no longer have to do as I say. You're free."

Stefan blinked as the new compulsion took hold, then looked around to see Damon already gone, the hybrids still in defensive stances near the door, ready in case Klaus had ever needed backup.

"Well, we'll be going now," the other Klaus announced matter-of-factly. "Have a nice life Stefan Salvatore."

Leaving a stunned Stefan and a ruined high school dance in his wake, the other Klaus gestured to the hybrids and led them out of the gym.

They left town immediately, never seeing Caroline even for an instant.

{ }

The other Caroline's 18th birthday came and went with little fanfare.

She and Bonnie and Matt didn't really feel much like celebrating without Elena, though Bonnie did make Caroline a birthday card and tape a few colorful balloons to her locker.

The real Caroline could almost feel the burning pain of a hybrid bite, and found herself longing for the stinging of fire rushing through her veins.

{ }

In another nondescript bar in another nondescript town, Tyler caught sight of the phone screen of a local who was lucky enough to still get cell service out in the middle of nowhere, and remarked that it was Caroline's birthday.

The alternate version of Klaus looked confused for a second before responding, "Caroline's the pretty blonde, your girl back home?"

As Tyler nodded, the real Klaus found himself wishing that he had brought the white oak stake with him into this alternate universe, so that even if he couldn't get rid of his insufferable shadow self, he could at least put himself out of his misery.

{ }

As weeks passed, Caroline found herself watching a series of events that was almost entirely unfamiliar to her.

Apparently Klaus had returned to the Pacific Northwest after killing Mikael and declared that he would never return to Mystic Falls, prompting Tyler to call the other Caroline and officially put a definitive end to their relationship, since they didn't know if they would ever see each other again.

The other Caroline cried herself to sleep that night, though she recovered more quickly than Caroline had when Tyler had left for good after Kol's death in her real timeline. They hadn't been together for very long in this alternate universe, and she had to have seen the breakup coming when her boyfriend had been turned into a hybrid and then left town with the Original Hybrid who had sired him.

On a more positive note, without Tyler in Mystic Falls, Caroline's father hadn't come to town to help him, so he hadn't died. Of course, the down side of that was that the other Caroline hadn't seen him since the day he tortured her.

It seemed that everything had changed. There were no Mikaelsons, no Mikaelson ball, none of Esther's schemes to kill her children because she'd turned them into vampires and only seemed to care after the fact that vampires were a violation of the laws of nature, no interactions or visits with Bonnie's mom—who didn't become a vampire, no super Original-vampire-killing monsters, no car accidents, and no inadvertent vampire transitions.

With the exceptions of Caroline, Bonnie, Stefan, and Damon, Mystic Falls was completely devoid of supernatural activity.

Which was good for the town's population and the police department's workload, but it also left everyone in the know about the supernatural world without much to do.

Watching the other Caroline study, and go to cheer practice, and spend time with her mom made Caroline sad as she realized how boring her life was with any supernatural shenanigans.

Without Klaus.

She'd faced her fair share of supernatural conflicts from the time Katherine killed her to the time Hope had snapped her neck and sent her into this mental time travel, but there was something special about the ones that had involved Klaus.

Caroline knew that the only explanation for that had to be her feelings for him. She'd never had to deny any attraction to Silas, or found herself wishing she could forget the atrocities committed by Kai Parker. None of the Travelers or the Heretics had ever made her feel like she was important to them, or gave her presents, or used any excuse they could to spend time with her.

After watching weeks of the other Caroline growing increasingly bored, lonely, and miserable, Caroline continually returned to the same thought: her life without Klaus was pathetic.

There was no adventure, no excitement, no dreams of grand possibilities.

This alternate version of Caroline lived by rote: she went to school, went to either cheer practice, a student council meeting, or a dance committee meeting, she hung out with Bonnie and/or Matt, she did her homework, she ate dinner, she watched TV, she went to bed.

Day in and day out. Rinse and repeat.

Other things had changed that had nothing to do with Caroline. Bonnie and Jeremy—who hadn't been sent to live in Denver thanks to Elena's absence—hadn't gotten back together, since even if she could forgive him for the ghost exes incident, it was too hard for them to be together without being reminded that Elena, the person they both loved so much, was still missing. Stefan and Damon spent all of their time either drinking at the Grill or drinking at home—without Elena, they didn't even take breaks from their alcohol consumption for missions to save her.

Matt and the other Caroline had rebuilt their friendship after their attempt at a relationship, and now it was stronger than ever. They spent a lot of time together, but Matt had made very clear that he was only interested in an innocent, human friendship, to which the other Caroline had gladly agreed.

Caroline missed Matt, and wished that their relationship was like that in real life. Now that Bonnie had left Mystic Falls, Stefan was dead, and Elena and Damon were human, Matt had reverted back to his original anti-supernatural stance. Caroline tried not to take it personally that he had had no problems with Elena when she became a vampire, or with Rebekah being a thousand-year-old vampire, but had found the idea of being in a relationship with her after she had turned into a vampire impossible.

In this universe, though, Caroline and Bonnie both lived a nearly entirely human existence, so there were times when Matt forgot that he was best friends with a vampire and a witch.

The three of them only ever saw Stefan and Damon when they happened to be at the Grill at the same time. Stefan, though he had turned his humanity back on the night of the Homecoming dance, when Damon had finally gotten through to him that they'd lost Elena and would likely never see her again, had dropped out of high school, not seeing the point in bothering to earn his seventeenth high school diploma when everything else in his life had gone so wrong.

The only incident that caused the Salvatores to look up from their glasses of bourbon was the increasingly violent and destructive behavior of Alaric's dark alter ego. He killed Meredith's boyfriend (what was his name again? oh, what did it matter.), but not Caroline's father because he never came to Mystic Falls.

Caroline was fairly certain that it had been Elena who had figured out what was wrong with Ric, since she spent the most time with him, but in this alternate timeline, it was Stefan who put the pieces together.

Fortunately, since Esther was still in a coffin wherever Klaus was, Alaric did not become a super Original vampire hunter. The Salvatores locked him up in their basement cell until Bonnie found a way to exorcise the darkness from him. For a month afterwards, he stayed with the Salvatores just to be sure there were no lingering side effects.

With Alaric healthy, he never tortured Caroline or revealed her undead status to the council, which made the other Caroline's life a lot less stressful.

Still, sometimes it was the little things that sent a person over the edge.

Even as she'd taken all of the other major changes in stride, Caroline cried as she watched the other Caroline change into a pink and white dress with a bold swirling pattern and white go-go boots for the 1970s Decade Dance.

{ }

The other Klaus, Rebekah, Tyler, Elena, and an ever-growing contingent of hybrids spent the next few months travelling the world.

They spent a few weeks in Chicago, a few weeks in New York City, a few weeks in Los Angeles. They never settled anywhere, and why should they? They could go anywhere in the world, why tie themselves to one city when they could make any city they wanted their playground until they got bored of it?

Their stays in each cities became increasingly shorter as the other Klaus got bored increasingly quickly.

He undaggered Elijah after a few weeks of travel, and Kol a few weeks after that, but they both left as soon as the greyed veins disappeared from their skin.

He had no shortage of female company, but he drained them all by morning, none of them more than a pretty face to keep his bed warm for a few hours.

Klaus tried to remember what he had been doing in Mystic Falls during this time period. There had been the ball his family hosted, Esther's plot to kill them, the revelation of the second white oak tree, then the Decade Dance, saving Caroline from Alaric, taking up residence in Tyler's body.

He'd literally died in the real timeline, and he preferred that over the careless, emotionless existence his alternate self was living.

Nothing mattered to the Klaus in this alternate timeline. He had finally achieved the goal he had been working towards for centuries, but he didn't know how to stay still and be content with what he had, so he kept traveling, kept finding more werewolves to turn into hybrids, because he had made siring his own species his new life's purpose after no longer having breaking his curse to serve as his life's purpose.

Elena was exhausted and miserable, and the other Klaus didn't care. Tyler was homesick and miserable, and the other Klaus didn't care. Rebekah was frustrated and miserable, and the other Klaus didn't care.

The other Klaus didn't care, didn't connect with people, because he hadn't met Caroline, the person who made him care about her.

Gorging on blood and women was nothing compared to the feeling that glowed in his chest when she smiled at him.

She made his life interesting, as opposed to the repeated cycle of tracking down werewolves, turning them into hybrids, going out to celebrate, taking a woman home, sleeping with her and then drinking from her, that the other version of himself maintained for weeks.

Eventually, he had more hybrids than he knew what to do with and decided to focus on training them instead of making more of them.

But as the other Klaus barked orders, Klaus bristled at how harsh and cruel his alternate self was being, remembering that Caroline had all but demanded that he treat his hybrids as people rather than slaves.

He wondered what Caroline was doing in this alternate timeline. Going to school and cheerleading practice of course, planning school dances, spending time with her friend the Bennett witch, but was she still risking her life for so-called friends who would never do the same for her? Was she happy? Was she happier without him in her life?

That last question was what haunted Klaus for weeks of his alternate self's monotonous, self-serving existence, wanting nothing more than to show the other version of himself how much better Caroline had made him, and how wrong he was for thinking that love was a weakness.

{ }

The other Caroline was in her room painting her nails pink when her mother received that call that Caroline had been dreading: a fire had been reported at Pastor Young's farm.

Just like that, the search for the cure was on.

Caroline hadn't been sure whether or not to expect it—as large a role as Klaus had played in this particular quest, nothing he had done had incited it.

Caroline was overwhelmed with sympathy as she considered everything that this Caroline would miss in this alternate search for the cure: she wouldn't become best friends with Stefan, she wouldn't have the perfect prom night with Tyler, and most importantly, Klaus wouldn't love her.

That thought filled Caroline with both pity and possessiveness. Being loved by Klaus was a rare gift… and she wanted it for herself. He had promised to be her last love, and no one else's, not even an alternate universe version of herself.

Caroline shook her head. As she saw more and more of the boring, miserable life she would lead if she had never met Klaus, it was getting harder and harder to keep a tight grip on her feelings. It was as if her life was _The Wizard of Oz_ , and Klaus had been the one to turn her black-and-white world to Technicolor. Without him, her life was tepid greyscale with an impenetrable barrier around the Mystic Falls town limits, devoid of light and excitement, color and adventure.

She refused to return to a life without him, whether because of his death or his return to New Orleans.

Well, that was new. Until now, Caroline knew that Hope's mission was to make her realize how much she cared about Klaus so that she would help save his life, something that she had gladly played along with because she already cared enough about Klaus to want to save his life. Yet her feelings clearly went further than she or Hope had expected, because now she could not envision going back even to the life she'd been living just weeks ago, having gone years without speaking to Klaus.

She didn't want him as the answer to a question that she might someday answer, she wanted him as the man she journeyed through eternity with, starting now.

But it appeared that she was stuck here in this alternate timeline occurring inside her own head, so she resigned herself to watching the current misadventures of the alternate version of herself and the alternate versions of her friends as they tried to navigate an alternate search for the cure, which would hopefully result in fewer casualties this time.

Of course, it quickly became clear that Klaus had been the brains of the operation during the search for the cure, since Stefan and Damon had no idea where to even start. All they had was the information that Connor Jordan had given them, which wasn't detailed enough to be very helpful.

The other Caroline was, as usual, excluded from the mission in its entirety.

Said mission came screeching to a halt not long after it started, after Damon realized that only Stefan wanted the cure and he wasn't willing to let his brother die and leave him all alone. The Salvatores also reasoned that aligning themselves with suspicious vampire hunters was a recipe for disaster and that they should quit while they weren't yet dead.

Only Caroline knew that they should consider this failure a blessing. Without Hayley there to betray them and Klaus there to kill them, the second massacre for the Expression Triangle wouldn't occur, and there weren't even twelve vampires and/or werewolves in Mystic Falls to serve as replacements for the hybrids. If they never went to the island, Bonnie would never be brainwashed by Silas, forcing Caroline to commit the third massacre to save her life. Two dozen people wouldn't lose their lives, the Veil would never be dropped, and Stefan wouldn't spend months drowning in a safe, because Stefan and Damon decided to leave well enough alone for once in their lives.

So, once again without a supernatural crisis to resolve, the other Caroline threw herself into school and extracurricular activities. She hosted the Miss Mystic Falls pageant, happily bequeathing her crown to April Young, who totally got the sympathy vote because her father had just died in the fire at her family's farm. She applied to colleges, though she and Bonnie both admitted that it was weird going through the admissions process without Elena, and that it would be another painful reminder of everything that Elena was missing to keep their promise to attend Whitmore College together. So, with her mother's blessing, the other Caroline applied to other colleges in the area as well—the University of Virginia, Virginia State University, George Washington and James Madison, even Georgetown as a reach. She wasn't worried about tuition costs, since she literally had forever to pay back her student loans.

While the other Caroline waited to hear back from the universities she'd applied to, she devoted time to planning a Decade Dance, this one 1980s-themed, the one that had been cancelled in the past. Once that dance was over, all of the other Caroline's energies went into planning the perfect prom—which wouldn't have to be carefully crafted to try to get Elena to turn her humanity back on. Only a few days after prom, the other Caroline was informed that all of her hard work had paid off and she was going to be valedictorian, which meant she needed to write a speech.

Even though she had a packed schedule and thriving social life, Caroline could tell that the alternate version of herself was still feeling a little lost, searching for something that wasn't there.

Klaus.

She was searching for Klaus.

The thought made Caroline smile, and feel like she'd been run over by a truck.

The other Caroline had never met Klaus, and therefore didn't know what she was missing. But she knew that she was missing something.

There would always be a Klaus-sized hole in Caroline's life, in any incarnation in which she didn't know him, didn't love him.

In a world where she did know him and love him, that loss would be devastating.

{ }

At first the other Klaus paid no attention to the rumors of an alleged cure for vampirism.

Then Kol had found him, blabbering on about how Silas had to be stopped.

After hearing Kol's concerns, the other Klaus decided, in the interest of family loyalty—and as a result of boredom—he would help his brother defeat this Silas character.

The two of them, together with Rebekah, combined their knowledge of Silas, the Five, and the Hunter's Sword. Thanks to Rebekah's affair with one of the original members of the Five, they even knew the exact location of the sword and could get their hands on it before anyone else figured it out.

Kol was insistent that Silas should not be awakened under any circumstances, but the other Klaus wanted the cure, if only so that no one could use it against him.

In response, Kol had pointed out that no one was better equipped to find the cure than they were, so if they didn't choose to search for it, it was likely that no one else would either, knowing that they didn't have the experience or the resources that the Mikaelsons did.

Rebekah was the one who hammered the final nail in the search for the cure's coffin: knowing its value, Katerina would surely hunt it down in order to bargain for her freedom. If they just waited long enough, she would deliver the cure to them, and they wouldn't have to do any of the work.

Klaus wished he had adopted that philosophy in real life; it would have saved him a lot of effort. Of course, the search for the cure had afforded him ample opportunities to spend time with Caroline, so he couldn't regret it completely.

The other Klaus agreed to that course of action, especially after he realized that finding a new vampire hunter, training them, and waiting for them to kill enough vampires to complete their mark might take more time than he really wanted to devote to this whim of Kol's.

Klaus also noted that the alternate version of himself had more reason than he did to be laissez-faire about the cure, since he had a human doppelganger donating blood to create new hybrids whenever he needed it. He didn't need to use the cure on either Elena or Katherine to make them human again for his own purposes. It had just been a happy coincidence for her that Elena wanted the cure to become human again as well.

With the situation with the cure on the back burner for the moment, the other Klaus resumed his plans for world travel.

Klaus thought it was almost comical that the other version of himself could have everything he wanted and still be so restless and unhappy.

He knew that something was missing, and he chalked it up to not having an all-encompassing goal anymore now that he had broken his curse.

But Klaus knew that he was wrong. Klaus had learned since meeting Caroline, since Hope was born, that victories were more satisfying when they were shared with loved ones.

But this other Klaus, who unrepentantly stole Elena from her life to use her as a blood bag to create hybrids, who still took Rebekah for granted, who still treated Kol like he was a nuisance, knew that something was missing from his life, and he chased it relentlessly by constantly running around the globe, never finding what he was looking for.

The other Klaus had never met Caroline, and therefore didn't know what he was missing. But he knew that he was missing something.

Whether he knew her or not, Klaus's life would always be dark without Caroline's light to guide it.

And if her light couldn't reach whatever came after this life, the results would be disastrous.

{ }

There were three red-cap-and-gown-clad figures between the other Caroline and the seat that should have been Elena's.

Sixteen sat between the other Caroline and the seat that should have been Tyler's.

She had made her valedictorian speech and everyone had applauded politely (except Bonnie and Matt, who had cheered and wolf-whistled). Now she was just sitting and waiting for her name to be called, and for the ceremony to be over, so that she could go out to dinner with her mom and her friends and then go home.

Caroline felt tremendous sympathy for the alternate version of herself, who would never hear the epic promise that Klaus had made her on this day, who would never experience the eternal, all-consuming love that Klaus felt for her.

As she watched the other Caroline stand up and toss her cap into the air, she couldn't help but feel like that promise, rather than the new laptop she'd received from her mom or the mini-fridge she'd received from her dad, was the real gift she'd received that day.

{ }

As spring became summer, Klaus thought to himself that Caroline's graduation must be approaching in this alternate timeline.

Tyler never mentioned it as they spent May and June in Stockholm, Vienna, and Amsterdam.

Klaus didn't remember the exact date, but he remembered every moment of the day itself.

And in this inferior world, none of it would happen.

{ }

Years passed, and eventually everything changed.

The other Caroline left Mystic Falls at the end of that summer to move into her dorm at the University of Virginia. She'd decided against her previous ambition of working in the field of broadcast journalism, since news viewers watching her never-aging face every night could be dangerous to the secrecy of the vampire community. Instead, she chose the broader course of study of communications, which she could use in a variety of ways that wouldn't risk exposing her vampirism.

She pledged a sorority and immediately volunteered for the vacant position of events coordinator.

The other Caroline thrived in the college environment, which unlike Caroline's own experience, was free from supernatural drama. No secret societies, no newly-human doppelgangers showing up unannounced in her dorm room, no anti-magic bubbles.

She wasn't sure exactly when she had started doing so, but the other Caroline quickly got into the habit of hiding her vampirism.

She kept blood bags in a box that had once held a variety pack of ice cream sandwiches. She never fed outside of her dorm room. She never used her vampire speed or strength where there was any chance anyone might see.

For a while, the other Caroline was happy with every aspect of her life: her academic career, her enduring friendships with Bonnie and Matt, her new friendships, her stronger-than-ever relationship with her mother.

Then something happened exactly as it had in real life: Caroline's mother died of cancer when Caroline was twenty.

The other Caroline spent every moment she could at her mother's bedside since she'd been admitted to the hospital. She would write papers and complete her reading assignments in the visitor's chair in Liz's room. She would skip classes that didn't count attendance as part of her grade, and she never spent any time with her school friends anymore.

Everyone returned for the funeral. Stefan and Damon, who had never left Mystic Falls and singlehandedly kept the Grill in business with their alcohol consumption, were the first to arrive at the church, offering their condolences. From the time Bonnie arrived to the time the service was over and the last mourners had left, she never let go of the other Caroline's hand. Matt let the other Caroline cry on his shoulder without complaint.

The other Caroline didn't turn off her humanity after her mother's death, partly because the useless drama with Stefan and Caroline's temporary return to her insecure human self hadn't happened in this alternate universe, but also partly because the other Caroline had been ignoring the vampire part of herself for so long that she'd likely forgotten that it was an option.

Instead, in true Caroline fashion, she devoted herself completely to school and friends and extracurricular activities that she had no spare time to think about her grief.

Eventually, the other Caroline settled down with a boyfriend she'd started dating about a year after her mother's death. They got married when the other Caroline was twenty-four. Bonnie was her maid of honor and her father walked her down the aisle.

The other Caroline's innocent, human husband never knew she was a vampire.

When her husband brought up starting a family the following year, the other Caroline told him that after a car accident while she was in high school, she was unable to have children of her own (which technically wasn't a lie).

So the other Caroline and her husband adopted two children: twin girls named Jenna and Eliza.

That was when Caroline burst into tears.

This boring, mundane human life she disparaged as she watched this alternate version of herself, was disturbingly similar to her real life now. In fact, the other Caroline was better off than she was, since at least she had a husband who loved her. Caroline had Alaric, with his (honestly creepy) fixation with her ever since she had given birth to the girls (which hadn't been her choice, for the record), and Klaus, someday when she was ready, as long as Hope figured out some way to save him.

Hope had cast this spell on Caroline so that she would want to help her save Klaus's life. Caroline had already been willing to help, but now she was determined to succeed.

Caroline knew that she'd gotten a little complacent and resigned in her life since Stefan had died, but now that she saw what her life could have been and how it wasn't so different from what her life was, she admitted that she was stuck in stagnant suspended animation, and not in a romantic, "The Long Morrow" sort of way. For the last ten years, nothing in her life had changed significantly, and she kept pushing aside her own dreams and using her responsibilities as excuses to remain firmly in her comfort zone: Ric needed her (Ric was a grown man, he could take care of himself without his permanently-seventeen-year-old former student to help him), her daughters needed her (the girls were thirteen and attended boarding school, where none of the other students had their parents on campus), the students needed her (someone else could memorize the sales pitch and give the tours to prospective students and their families if she wasn't there, Caroline was sure of it).

As much as she might have been dreading it, Caroline knew that she would probably have to leave Mystic Falls soon, since she was obviously not in her thirties, as everyone from the mail carrier to the librarian knew she should be.

She'd realized years ago in this alternate timeline that what was missing from her life was the same thing that was missing from the other Caroline's life: Klaus.

Caroline had come a long way from throwing a party for her friends to celebrate Klaus's death. Sixteen years later, and she couldn't stomach the thought of Klaus dying, dying without fulfilling his promise to be her last love.

Caroline reached up to touch the rings hanging from the chain around her neck, looked down at the black clothes she was wearing.

She was tired of it. She was tired of mourning, of clipping her wings and ignoring her dreams out of so-called respect for Stefan. If he wanted to have any influence over her decisions, then he shouldn't have sacrificed himself to save Damon and Elena so that they could have a long, happy life together.

Caroline had compared Stefan's sacrifice with the one Klaus planned to make, but the difference between them was the intent. Klaus wanted desperately to live, to find some other way to save Hope, but he didn't think they could find an alternate solution in time, so he had resigned himself to doing whatever he could to save his daughter's life, even if it meant giving up his own life for hers. Stefan, on the other hand, had been more than willing to die. From the way Bonnie and Alaric had explained the plan, it didn't seem like Stefan dying had even technically been necessary if he'd stabbed Katherine with the knife and pushed her into the path of the hellfire at the right moment. But instead he'd chosen to die the town's hero, in the name of saving Elena.

And wasn't that an accurate summary of their relationship: Elena was worth dying for, and Caroline wasn't even worth living for.

So Caroline decided, right then and there, that she was going to start living for herself. And she wanted Klaus to be a part of that life.

A permanent part.

The image of the other Caroline eating dinner—meatloaf and mashed potatoes, again—started to fade. She couldn't hear their conversation about what the girls had learned in school that day any more. Caroline felt herself being pulled away from the scene, until she couldn't see anything at all, and everything went black.

{ }

Years passed, and still nothing changed.

The other Klaus continued to travel the world with Rebekah, Elena, Tyler, and the rest of the hybrids. He made new hybrids and trained the old ones. Eventually, he came up with the idea of creating military-style bases for the large numbers of hybrids that he didn't need to travel with him all of the time, and that project took several months and required him to travel to every continent.

But the other Klaus was clearly running out of hybrid-related items to add to his to-do list.

Klaus realized that his goal of reclaiming his throne in New Orleans had just sort of fallen into his lap because of other, more life-changing circumstances, and he understood that figuring out what you wanted to do with your life after focusing on one specific goal for the last thousand years would take some time, but he couldn't understand the other Klaus's lack of ambition or initiative. He should be doing something other than his passive role as creator of the hybrid species.

And yet, it seemed that that was all the other Klaus wanted to do.

In fact, he even encouraged Rebekah to find a suitable partner for Elena so that she could continue the doppelganger line sooner rather than later. Rebekah had put her foot down at the request, insisting that it was one thing to take the girl's blood to ensure that werewolves completed their transition to hybrids without dying, but that breeding her like a broodmare to ensure that he would always have a doppelganger available for his own personal gain was too insidious even for her.

And it was insidious, but it seemed that this other Klaus had never grown beyond using people for his own purposes and then disposing of them when they were no longer useful to him. He hadn't grown, he hadn't changed, he hadn't experienced any character development.

Of course, the ten or so years that Klaus was forced to watch this alternative timeline of events was only a very small fraction of his thousand years on the planet, but still, he hadn't even changed his haircut.

He also hadn't spent time with anyone who wasn't his siblings, his hybrids, the few witches he kept in his employ, or the women whose company he enjoyed for a few hours before disposing of them.

Rebekah had been in relationship after relationship—if you could call the series of men that Rebekah entertained 'relationships,' Elijah was with Katerina, even Tyler was in a relationship with another hybrid named Ariel.

Of course, Klaus had never been someone who sought long-term romantic relationships—at least not prior to meeting Caroline—but the fact that he hadn't sought out old acquaintances was concerning.

Klaus knew what the supernatural community had whispered amongst themselves about his inner circle. It was true that his trust was difficult to earn and infrequently given, but after his stints in Mystic Falls and then New Orleans, Klaus had increased the number of people he let close to him.

He had made a concerted effort to trust his siblings and give them the benefit of the doubt, rather than reaching for a dagger any time he suspected they might want to do something he didn't approve of.

Marcel had gone from prodigal son to adversary to brother-in-arms.

Vincent challenged him in ways that would have gotten him killed if someone had said those things to Klaus two decades ago, but now Klaus respected his expertise and his loyalty—even if his loyalty wasn't to him.

A witch as powerful as Davina would have been put down out of fear for how she might use those powers against him, but now Klaus willingly took that risk for the sake of his brother's happiness.

Klaus had accepted Keelin into the family without knowing anything about her other than the fact that Freya loved her and that she had been kind to Hope when she had babysat once when Hope was seven.

And, of course, Caroline.

He hadn't seen her in sixteen years, yet the day they met again, his feelings were every bit as strong as they were the day he'd walked away from her.

She'd become his closest confidante over the past weeks, someone whose opinions he valued and whose judgment he trusted. As a parent herself, she understood the turmoil and fear he felt as a result of his strained relationship with Hope. He could still count on her to not mince words like so many others would around him, to tell him the truth he needed to hear without fearing his reaction, but she was also understanding and sympathetic and every bit as vibrant as he remembered her being.

Caroline would be all right without him. She was strong, and every loss and every heartbreak she'd suffered only served to make her stronger. She would remember him, and she would likely be one of the very few people outside of his family who would react to his death with something other than relief he could no longer hurt anyone else, or petty satisfaction that he finally had to answer for his sins. She might even teach the students at her school that he was more than just a callous killer with too much power, money, and time on his hands.

But Klaus didn't want Caroline to simply be all right, he certainly didn't want her to just remember him fondly, and he definitely didn't want to be just another lesson in history class that students paid little attention to.

Klaus wanted for Caroline what he'd always wanted for Caroline: everything the world had to offer.

He'd always wanted to be the one to show Caroline the world—and as far as he knew, he was the only one who hadn't assumed that Caroline would be content to never leave Mystic Falls.

Except now some of his visions of traveling all over the world with Caroline featured the soundtrack of three girls' laughter as they snapped pictures on their cell phones and took in the unfamiliar sights with wide eyes.

If that image, one of the pure, unconditional love of family, wasn't worth living for, then what was?

Klaus was once again overwhelmed with sympathy for the other version of himself.

If he died that day (his fierce survival instincts refused to allow him to say 'when'), he would spend the last hours of his life surrounded by family who cared about him.

This alternate version of himself had alienating himself so completely that if he died, his siblings might not even notice for days. His hybrids wouldn't care—if anything, they would be relieved to be released from their sire bonds.

Klaus idly wished that Hope could find a way to sacrifice the Klaus in this alternate universe she'd created instead of the real him, which would solve their problems without requiring them to make any sacrifices they couldn't live with.

But unfortunately, a figment of his imagination would not be a suitable replacement in the plan he had already set in motion.

He wasn't sure there was a suitable replacement for him besides his siblings, who he simply could not allow to make this sacrifice for him. But if they could think of something else in whatever time he had left, he would be willing to try.

The image of the other version of himself, drinking alone in his study, started to fade. He couldn't hear the noise floating in from the street through the open window any more. Klaus felt himself being pulled away from the scene, until he couldn't see anything at all, and everything went black.

{ }

The first thing Caroline saw when she opened her eyes was Hope Mikaelson staring down at her with stubborn determination, dark circles under her blue eyes and strands of auburn hair threatening to escape the messy ponytail resting on her left shoulder.

"You're awake," Hope said, which Caroline thought at first was a rather useless thing to say, since they both already knew that. Then Caroline realized that the young witch was trying to subtly confirm that she was, in fact, back in the real world and not some other alternate timeline that existed only in her own head. "Welcome back."

Hope looked more like Hayley than she did like Klaus, a fact that Caroline had alternately resented and been grateful for over the years. Sometimes the similarities to the werewolf she had resented and disliked for so many reasons repelled her enough to keep her distance and treat Hope like any other student, while other times she found herself staring, searching for any hint of Klaus in the girl's face.

Hope's oval-shaped face, her narrow nose, her angular, arched eyebrows, and her wide eyes all came from Hayley. Her hair was lighter than Hayley's dark brown color, but with a reddish tone that distinguished it from Klaus's. She did have blue eyes like Klaus rather than Hayley's green, though Hope's were slightly brighter and a shade closer to the green end of the blue eye color scale than Klaus's deceptively soft color.

But now Caroline realized that the angry, defiant teenager standing in front of her did look like Klaus—not in features but in demeanor. She could see him in the determined look in Hope's eyes, the resolute set of her jaw.

Then she raised her eyebrows, a movement that was so indisputably Hayley that it broke Caroline free from her reverie.

"We need to move quickly if this is going to work," Hope insisted.

Caroline pulled herself into a sitting position and took in her surroundings.

She was sitting on a large bed, with Hope standing over her and Klaus lying next to her. His eyes were closed, and Caroline could only guess that he was still under the influence of the spell Hope had cast on her, or perhaps a different spell altogether. Surrounding the bed were Elijah, Rebekah, Kol, and Freya Mikaelson, two dark-skinned men Caroline had never met, a petite dark-haired girl she didn't recognize, an unfamiliar curly-haired woman, and, much to her surprise, her two daughters.

"Can someone please explain to me what's going on? Because either there are now far more Mikaelsons in Mystic Falls than Alaric would ever be comfortable with, or my thirteen-year-old daughters left the state without either of their parents' permission," Caroline demanded.

The twins exchanged guilty looks.

All three girls had changed clothes at some point while Caroline had been under the effects of Hope's spell, out of the school uniforms they had been wearing the last time she saw them and into black skinny jeans and thick cable-knit sweaters—Hope in navy blue, Josie in plum, and Lizzie in burgundy. Hope's auburn hair had been hastily pulled back into a messy ponytail, while the twins' hair had been carefully French braided—Josie's dark hair in one thick braid hanging down her back, Lizzie's in twin blonde braids over her shoulders—which suggested to Caroline that someone (she suspected Rebekah) had been agitated and desperate for a task that would keep their mind and their hands occupied.

"It's kind of a long story," Lizzie hedged.

"If there's anything I can take credit for teaching you, it's how to talk fast," Caroline challenged.

"Fine," Lizzie sighed.

{ }

 _(18 hours earlier)_

 _Hope crept quietly down the hall until she reached the Saltzman twins' room. She pushed open the door, willing it not to squeak, then quickly closed it behind her and flipped on the light switch._

 _Josie quickly stood and turned to face the intruder, while Lizzie groggily pulled herself into a sitting position facing the door._

 _Before either of them could speak, Hope lit the sage she was holding so that no one else could hear them._

" _What are you doing here?" Josie asked. "It's the middle of the night."_

" _I need your help," Hope answered._

" _Again?" Lizzie questioned. "Why do you need our help, again, and why should we help you, again?"_

 _Hope turned her attention to Josie, thinking that she would be the more reasonable and level-headed of the twins. One half of the two people she needed to save her father was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and wearing light blue cloud-print flannel pajamas. The other half, having apparently resigned herself to the fact that Hope wasn't leaving until they agreed to help, reluctantly pulled herself out of bed, wearing white flannel pajamas printed with tiny cherry blossoms and impatiently swiping her long blonde hair out of her eyes._

 _Hope sighed. As usual, the adults were dragging their feet and sitting on their hands, leaving the teenagers to actually fix the situation._

" _What even is it that you want us to do?" Josie asked._

" _The same spell you did earlier," Hope answered. "All I need is for you to do that spell again."_

" _Why?" Lizzie asked._

" _To save my father's life," Hope said slowly, like she was talking to a child._

" _He's just going to disappear again," Lizzie shot back, her mean girl smirk on her face._

" _No, he won't," Hope insisted. "He won't have any reason to. We're still going to destroy the Hollow."_

" _How?" Josie asked._

" _The same way my dad wanted to," Hope replied. "There are only a few creatures on Earth who are strong enough to possess the Hollow without being consumed by it and turning into an empty shell controlled by all of that dark magic. It was attracted to me because I'm the most powerful witch to ever live, but I'm not technically immortal yet, so having that much dark magic inside of me threatened to kill me. That's why my dad asked you to move it from me to him. I'm asking you to move it again, from my dad to someone else."_

" _No offense Hope, but your brilliant ideas this semester have ended up with Henry jumping out of a window to his death, you getting suspended, your mother getting kidnapped, and then your mother getting killed, and you getting possessed by dark magic and then your dad getting possessed by dark magic. What makes you think that this plan of yours is going to go any better than your other ones?" Lizzie asked. "And I wouldn't go around calling yourself the most powerful witch to ever live if you ever want to make any friends, especially since you're in our room in the middle of the night begging for our help."_

" _Noted," Hope retorted flatly. "Are you in, or not? Because we need to get going. We need to get back to New Orleans before my dad wakes up, and it's been over an hour since I snapped his neck."_

" _We're going to New Orleans?" Lizzie confirmed._

" _Yeah," Hope answered. "My uncle Elijah and I need to talk to the rest of our family before we do this. Come on, your mom's already in the car."_

 _Hope only felt a little bad about misleading the twins. Yes, Caroline was already in the last row of seats in her father's SUV. But she was lying there with a broken neck along with Klaus. But as long as Lizzie and Josie didn't turn around before the car started moving, Hope didn't think she would need to worry about them backing out of the plan._

" _Again I ask, what is in it for us? If you want us to travel across the country with you without even taking the time to tell our father where we're going, then this operation is a lot riskier for us than the first spell we did. If we're going to be grounded for months over this, there's got to be something in it for us," Lizzie said._

" _Right," Hope nodded, reaching into the bag she was carrying—olive green faux leather, oversized, with tons of pockets and buckles. Her mother had bought it for her for her last birthday. She was pretty sure her father hadn't sent her anything._

" _Apparently you wanted these?" Hope held up two boxes containing the latest model iPhone. "My dad bought these for you as a thank you gift, and gave them to Elijah to give to you after the spell was complete, then Elijah gave them to me. You aren't getting them until after you complete the second spell."_

 _Lizzie's eyes lit up at the sight of the phones._

" _Do we have a deal?" Hope asked, shoving the boxes back into her bag._

 _Lizzie looked at Josie, appearing to defer to her twin._

 _Hope had always found the Saltzman twins' dynamic curious. Lizzie was quick-witted, sharp-tongued, self-centered—the meaner and more materialistic of the two, while Josie was more stoic, rational, deliberate; yet for all of her bluster, Lizzie usually stepped back and let Josie make the final decisions for them._

" _Fine," Josie answered. "We'll help."_

" _Thank you," Hope replied as the twins each grabbed a large tote bag—Lizzie's chocolate brown, Josie's charcoal grey—and started shoving a change of clothes, their phones and phone chargers, and other necessities inside._

 _After they changed into jeans and sweaters and threw their pajamas into their bags, Hope led Lizzie and Josie out to the driveway where she knew Elijah was parked, waiting for them. Hope knew he would be impatient; she'd taken longer to convince the twins to help than she'd planned to._

 _Hope quickly jumped into the passenger seat, seeing in the rearview mirror as Lizzie took the seat behind her—and in front of her unconscious mother—while Josie sat behind Elijah and in front of Klaus._

" _Hello, Mr. Mikaelson. It's nice to meet you," Josie said as Elijah started driving._

" _The pleasure is all mine, Miss Saltzman," Elijah replied._

 _Something about Josie's words nagged at Hope, but she couldn't think of why, and she didn't have time to consider it if she was going to save her father._

 _Thanks to Elijah's sense of urgency and his ability to compel himself out of speeding tickets, combined with the lack of traffic in the middle of the night, it only took them twelve hours to get to New Orleans._

 _When they arrived at the house, the rest of the family was already there waiting for them—Freya and Keelin, Kol and Davina, Rebekah and Marcel, Vincent._

" _If one of you could bring Ms. Forbes inside, I would appreciate it," Elijah greeted them, holding Klaus over his shoulder._

" _Who are the stowaways?" Kol asked._

" _Lizzie and Josie Saltzman," Hope introduced them. "They're Ms. Forbes's daughters, and the only witches who can do the spell we need. Lizzie's the blonde, she's mean, watch out."_

" _Ah, right. The last living members of the Gemini Coven. Nifty little trick you two can do, isn't it?" Kol asked._

" _Sometimes it is, but sometimes it's a little daunting being the only two people in the world who can do what we do," Lizzie said, uncharacteristically shy._

" _What do you need us to do now?" Josie interrupted. "Or do we just wait?"_

" _We're going to still be waiting for a while," Hope answered. "See, I needed your mom to want to help us, so I put this spell on her and my dad…"_

{ }

"We didn't know that Hope had done anything other than snap your neck until we got to New Orleans," Josie said.

Caroline knew that Josie was telling the truth, and she knew that Hope was the only person responsible for the spell she'd been put under.

"And we didn't know she'd snapped your neck at all until we were halfway to North Carolina," Lizzie added.

"Mr. Mikaelson drives really fast," Josie explained with wide eyes, remembering the dramatic journey.

Caroline could see wheels turning in Hope's head.

"Have you two known who I am the whole time?" Hope demanded.

"Yes," Lizzie answered simply. "What was it that made you realize after all this time?"

"Josie called Elijah 'Mr. Mikaelson,'" Hope answered. "When Landon met him yesterday, I introduced him as my uncle, and Landon called him 'Mr. Marshall,' because I use my mother's last name at school."

"Our mother also introduced your dad to us as 'Mr. Mikaelson' yesterday, so even if I hadn't known since you'd arrived, I still would have known your uncle's last name was Mikaelson when I met him," Josie pointed out.

"I just can't believe that Lizzie Saltzman, the biggest gossip and mean girl at the Salvatore School, kept my secret for eight years without asking for anything in return," Hope said.

"Mom and Dad said it was important," Lizzie shrugged. "And I figured one of us should make an effort to keep your secret."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hope demanded.

"It means that no one would bully 'the tribrid,' if they knew who she was," Lizzie explained. "And if you really didn't want anyone to know that you were a Mikaelson, you might have considered not wearing the family crest around your neck every day for the last seven years."

Hope automatically reached up to touch the necklace, tangled with the crescent moon necklace she'd been wearing since she returned from Hayley's funeral.

"So you were mean to me to protect my identity?" Hope confirmed.

"Why do you think we never got in trouble for it?" Lizzie questioned. "It wasn't because our parents run the school, it was because they knew what we were doing and why we were doing it."

Caroline remembered the first time she heard about her daughter spreading unkind rumors about Hope—she was six, and it was something about Hope making an orphanage explode. When Caroline questioned her about it, Lizzie had furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head, adorably confused.

"I thought we were keeping who she really is a secret?" Lizzie had said.

Caroline had told Alaric, and since then, unless Lizzie and Josie did something genuinely harmful or unacceptably mean, they had turned a blind eye to their daughters' chosen method of concealing Hope's identity.

"Could we possibly return to the task at hand?" Caroline suggested. "As I understand it, time is of the essence, and I'm sure that you didn't kidnap me and somehow convince my daughters to help you with everything you've already done and whatever you're planning for no reason."

"Right," Hope said. "The plan is pretty simple: Lizzie and Josie are just going to siphon the dark magic back out of my dad and put it in Elijah."

Caroline looked around the room. The atmosphere was solemn, but she saw no surprise or outward expressions of grief besides the dried tear tracks on Rebekah's and Freya's faces.

Everyone else must have already discussed this before Caroline woke up.

"Why exactly did you need me here for this?" Caroline asked. "You have your family, and some other people I don't recognize who I assume are friends of the family, if the Mikaelsons even have such a thing, and you have the girls to do the spell. I'm happy to help you in any way that I can, but I seem extraneous to this plan, so I'm not sure why you put in the effort to drag me here and keep me under the influence of a spell for hours."

Hope looked at her aunts and uncles as if asking their permission to let Caroline in on a secret.

"What my niece is trying to tell you is that we can't move forward with this plan without your approval, and not just because it may be the only thing standing between the whole lot of us and spending a century daggered in our coffins when Nik wakes up," Rebekah said. "And everyone you don't know: this is Marcel, it's a long story we don't have time for; that's Vincent, he's less of a family friend and more of a frequent antagonist slash occasional ally; that's Kol's wife Davina; and Freya's wife Keelin."

"Kol has a wife?" Caroline asked.

"That's what bothered you?" Rebekah raised her eyebrows.

"Sorry, but you might remember that the last time I saw Kol before today, he was a burnt corpse lying on the floor of Elena's kitchen, so seeing him alive and happily married is a little shocking for me," Caroline defended. "It's less shocking that, once again, people are hiding behind me to keep Klaus from killing them."

"Listen, you little tramp—"

"Rebekah," Elijah's stern voice interrupted.

"Whether you approve or not, I am losing a brother today. Elijah won't let your daughters perform the spell without your permission. So we are apparently leaving the future of the Mikaelson family in your hands. Either you give your permission, let your daughters do the spell, and Elijah dies; or you don't give your permission, nothing changes, and Nik dies as he planned, leaving Hope an orphan and leaving you alone for the rest of your pathetic life," Rebekah snapped, her voice breaking in several places.

"You're all certain that there's nothing we can do to give us more time to figure something else out? Some eleventh-hour magical miracle that you Mikaelsons have a knack for finding?" Caroline asked.

"We've been looking since we got back," Hope said.

"But there's not enough magic in the world to fix this," Freya continued solemnly.

"Why, do you have any ideas?" Hope asked.

"Years ago, my friends tried to kill Klaus," Caroline said. "Their plan was to desiccate him, bury him in concrete, and drop him in the ocean. That's what he originally said he wanted me to do after Lizzie and Josie put the dark magic into him."

"Is there a point soon?" Rebekah asked.

"After they desiccated him, he was killed," Caroline continued, leaving out the fact that it was Alaric who killed him for the girls' sakes. "But he survived because Bonnie had moved him into Tyler's body. It's the body that the Hollow wants, right? The Hollow possesses a person's body the same way that Klaus did when he possessed Tyler. Now Klaus probably wouldn't be willing to permanently give up being the Original Hybrid, but if we could make that work, would that be something you would be willing to consider, Elijah? Or Rebekah, you've always wanted to be human, we could move you to a human body and put the dark magic in your vampire body."

Elijah looked at her thoughtfully.

"What would need to happen?" he asked.

"We'd need the spell to move you into another body, a witch to do the spell, and a body to move you to," Caroline answered. "Even if it doesn't work, we'll at least have tried. And if there's one thing I know about you Mikaelsons, it's that you never give up. Sometimes it's as annoying as it is admirable."

"We'll do it," Hope answered. "We'll try whatever we can. But the spell I put on you and my dad is only meant to last twenty-four hours—until the moon is at the same position in the sky as it was when the spell was cast. Lizzie and Josie siphoned the spell off of you when we were ready. We only have a few hours until he wakes up, and we need to have the magic out of him and the rest of the spell complete by then."

"Now hold on a second," Caroline interjected. "Your plan is to have your father wake up from a spell you put on him to discover his brother is, at best, in another body, and at worst, dead?"

Hope looked a little sheepish.

"Well, we couldn't run the risk of him trying to stake himself as soon as he woke up. Then all of this would be for nothing. If the dark magic is already out of him, he'll have no reason to try to kill himself or force anyone else to kill him."

"That's manipulative, and I don't think I'm okay with it," Caroline responded. "Think about how you felt when you found out your father planned to sacrifice himself while you were in your wolf form and couldn't stop him. You're doing the same thing to him now."

"I'm trying to save him!" Hope insisted.

"And he was trying to save you," Caroline responded forcefully. "I know that you're trying to save him, and so will he, but that doesn't mean you aren't taking his choices away just like he did yours. I'm not saying no, I'm just saying, let's get the spell ready, then wake him up and tell him your plan. I will help you convince him it's worth trying the spell before anyone does anything rash."

"Do you think you can convince him?" Hope asked in a small voice.

"Oh please, Caroline could convince Nik that the moon is made of potato cheese soap," Kol laughed.

Caroline ignored him in favor of planning.

"So we need to find the body-jumping spell," she started.

"Considering Esther's penchant for body-jumping, I'm sure it's in my mother's grimoires. Davina and I will look for it," Freya offered.

"Great," Caroline nodded. "We'll also need a body to put Elijah in. Now, I'm sure there are no thousand-year-old vampire bodies available on such short notice, but you can always go to the hospital and find a patient on life-support and turn them once the spell is complete—why does everyone look like a light bulb just went off above their head?"

"You just gave us an idea," Rebekah answered.

{ }

When Klaus woke with a start, he was lying on a bed next to Caroline—fully dressed, so he knew this wasn't a dream. Caroline's daughters, along with his own, were standing next to him. His siblings, Marcel, Vincent, Davina, and Keelin were also in the room.

And the sleeping body of Aurora was lying on the floor.

"What is going on here?" Klaus demanded.

"Niklaus, we have a plan that would allow us to permanently get rid of the Hollow without sacrificing any of our lives," Elijah told him.

"That's what Aurora is doing here, I assume?" Klaus responded.

"Yes," Elijah nodded. "It was actually another plan of Ms. Forbes' that gave us the idea."

Klaus looked over at Caroline.

"I thought you couldn't stand in my way, love?" he teased.

"I said I couldn't, that doesn't mean I didn't want to," Caroline replied. "And the plan your siblings came up with is a lot better than mine."

"What was your plan?" Klaus asked.

"To move the Hollow into Elijah's body and then move Elijah into someone else's," Caroline answered. "You reminded me yesterday of my friends' plan to kill you, and that reminded me of how you survived. I made a comment about not having a thousand-year-old vampire's body to move Elijah into, then Rebekah ran out of the room and came back with her."

"I can't allow anyone else to sacrifice themselves for my child, that's my responsibility as her father," Klaus insisted.

"No, your responsibility as her father is to be her father, and you can't do that if you're dead," Caroline countered. "Look, our first choice plan is to have Lizzie and Josie move the Hollow from you into Aurora, and then kill Aurora, who apparently has been hanging around in your house under a sleeping spell for years, so it's not like it will make much difference to her. If that doesn't work, our second choice plan is to have Lizzie and Josie move the Hollow from you into Elijah, and then move Elijah into another body, that I recommended we go to the hospital and find so that we would be prepared for the second choice plan, but no one listened to me."

"Then why does Elijah need to be involved at all?" Klaus questioned.

"Are you seriously telling me that you've changed your mind about being the most powerful creature on the planet, and you're willing to give that up and be a baby vampire all over again?" Caroline raised her eyebrows.

"If that is what I must do to save my daughter's life," Klaus replied.

"That's only the backup plan," Caroline reminded him. "If everything goes according to plan, everyone will get to stay in their own body. But if we do have to move someone, it doesn't have to be you or Elijah. Rebekah still wants to be human, we could move the Hollow into her body and move her to a human one."

"If you want to keep the casualties to a minimum, love, you'll need to keep Rebekah alive and in her own body. Her sire line is the last of ours still intact, so if she dies, so does every vampire she's ever created," Klaus pointed out.

"Davina can separate Rebekah from her sireline just like she did with yours," Caroline answered. "And even if we eliminate Rebekah from our list of sacrificial candidates, that still leaves Elijah, who already agreed to do the spell; Kol said something about a witch he possessed; I guess you can be the one to get a new body if you really want to, though I don't think you'd be happy in the long run if you did; and this is only if moving the Hollow into Aurora doesn't work."

"I can't allow—"

"First of all, you aren't allowing anyone to do anything, everyone is offering to help," Caroline responded. "Second of all, we've had this conversation about you refusing to get out of your own way before. You seem to think that sacrificing yourself for your daughter is the best thing you can do for her, but Hope would not have kidnapped me and bribed my children to get us here to help save your life if she thought she was better off without you. Hope needs you, and she loves you. Isn't that worth living for?"

Klaus looked over at Caroline. Everything in her expression screamed sincerity.

Klaus carefully, hesitantly, reached out and took Caroline's hand in his.

"Okay," Klaus agreed. "We can try it your way."

{ }

With Freya and Davina hunting through Esther's grimoires for the body-jumping spell, the task of helping Lizzie and Josie set up for their spell fell to Vincent, Hope, Kol, and Rebekah.

Rebekah and Kol led the way to a room large enough to perform all of the spells necessary to carry out their plan. Vincent and Marcel followed, talking quietly among themselves; Hope and the twins walked together; Caroline and Klaus left some distance between themselves and their children so that if they spoke quietly, the girls wouldn't be able to overhear; Keelin had volunteered to carry Aurora, so she had intended to bring up the rear, but Elijah trailed behind them all, lost in his own thoughts.

"Caroline, we need to talk about—"

"When this is over," Caroline interrupted Klaus. "We need to get through the immediate task at hand, which is executing a plan to make sure you live longer than just the rest of the day, before I can even think about where we go from there."

"What if it doesn't work?" Klaus asked, more nervous than Caroline had ever seen him.

"Our backup plans have backup plans," Caroline said. "And if none of those work, we'll come up with new plans. Your family isn't just going to sit back and watch while you're dying. They're going to exhaust every possibility, call in every favor, threaten or bribe every ally, until the very last second."

"And you?" Klaus asked.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Caroline shot back. "And I have a last resort that I would rather do anything else before I went through with it. But let's start by letting the girls move the dark magic into Aurora, so even if we need to come up with another plan after that, at least it won't be inside of you while we're working on it."

"Caroline," Klaus grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop moving and look at him. "If your plans don't work, and the only way to keep you all safe is for me to die, please take care of Hope for me. She needs a mother, and you've been a good one to her all these years."

"What? I'm not— I don't—" Caroline stammered, shaking her head frantically.

"For seven years, she's been at your school while I traversed the globe and Hayley ruled the werewolves in New Orleans," Klaus said. "For those years, the most reliable parental figure in her life was you. When I was reunited with my daughter after seven years, do you know what her first word to me was?"

"I don't know, maybe 'what?' As in, 'what the hell, Dad, how could you just abandon me for seven years?'" Caroline suggested. "Seriously? Why are you asking me this right now?"

Klaus grinned.

"It was 'seriously,'" Klaus informed her. "She must have spent an awful lot of time with you in order to pick up your characteristic speech patterns."

Caroline blushed.

"I mean, she had trouble adjusting to a school environment at first after spending her entire life in the company of only her family, so she spent a lot of her free time in my office for a while, and I tried to make her feel comfortable with me, with the school, with the situation she was in. Plus, I think it was a relief for her to be around someone who knew who she was so she didn't have to use her fake name and pretend to be someone she wasn't. But as she got older, she started spending less and less time with me, became fiercely independent and determined to do everything on her own without any help from anyone."

"Tough, independent, stubbornly determined—yes, that sounds like Hope," Klaus smirked. "She inherited that from both her parents, I'm afraid."

"I'm sorry about Hayley," Caroline offered.

"Yes, I was pleased to receive your letter, and I'm sure Hope appreciates your condolences," Klaus responded. "And I appreciate you being magnanimous enough to forgive all of the ways that she hurt you, or at least not hold them against Hope."

"I saw her, when I passed out yesterday," Hope chimed in, looking back over her shoulder from where she was walking ahead of them with the twins. "She was in this afterlife version of the bayou, with Jackson, and Grandma Mary, and her parents. She was at peace, and she seemed happy there with all of those people she loved. She said she forgave me, for the part I played in her death."

"What does the afterlife look like?" Josie asked curiously.

"A lot like life, actually, except you hang out with dead people instead of living people. And the lighting isn't as good," Hope answered. "But, Dad, Mom asked me to give a message to Elijah, something about waiting for a dance, and I think that's at least part of why he volunteered to sacrifice himself in your place. He wants to be with her, but I don't know if he would go to the same place, you know, afterwards, since Mom was in the bayou with her family, who are all werewolves, and I'm not sure they'd welcome an Original vampire to join them."

"I'm sorry, are you saying that your mom and your uncle were together?" Lizzie interjected incredulously.

"It isn't as weird as you think, since my mom and dad were never together," Hope explained nonchalantly. "My dad was sad and lonely, so he got very, very drunk, and my mom was scared and hated that she had to ask for my dad's help to save her life, so she got very, very drunk; then, even though my mom hated my dad, and Dad didn't think too highly of Mom either, they had a very, very drunken one night stand, not knowing that Dad being the Original Hybrid meant that he could procreate with a werewolf; so needless to say, they were both very surprised when they were told that a miracle baby had been conceived."

"Every time I think you might have the potential to be a person who doesn't suck, you do something like refer to yourself as a 'miracle baby,'" Lizzie scoffed. "And it's very creepy that you know every dirty detail of your conception."

"As if you don't," Hope shot back.

"I'm aware of the magical intervention that allowed my sister and I to stay alive after our biological mother was killed—by her twin, at her wedding, so your sob story is nothing compared to ours—but that is completely different," Lizzie offered a sharp rebuttal.

Caroline looked at Klaus to see his reaction to Lizzie's verbal sparring with Hope, and to her surprise, he was smiling.

They both paused to put some space between themselves and the bickering girls.

"If you've ever wondered what pre-teen human Caroline was like," Caroline attempted to joke.

"She's wonderful, Caroline; both of them are," Klaus replied.

"Thank you," Caroline said. "They're quite the interesting experiment in nature versus nurture. Sometimes Lizzie is so much like me that I forget that we don't actually share any DNA, and other times she'll act so much like one of her Parker relatives that she's never met that I'm scared that everything we've worked so hard to protect them from is already festering inside of them."

"And your other daughter?" Klaus inquired.

"Josie's nothing like me," Caroline answered. "She's quiet, reserved, levelheaded. Logical and accommodating to the point of suppressing her own emotions. She's a lot like her biological mother Jo, and she also reminds me of Bonnie, and a little of Elijah, even, with his determination to stand by your side no matter what, ever since you left Mystic Falls."

"That reminds me, I'm angry with you," Klaus said.

"Okay," Caroline replied.

"That's all you have to say for yourself, 'okay?'" Klaus asked.

"Well, I'm not going to apologize, if that's what you're looking for."

They followed their daughters into a large, empty room downstairs where Vincent was already setting up the salt border for the spell.

"Where do you want me to put her?" Keelin asked as she entered the room behind them.

"She'll need to be in the circle while we're doing the spell," Josie answered.

Keelin dropped Aurora's still body in the center of the circle, then announced that she was going to help Freya, which seemed more productive than watching the twins perform the spell. Kol agreed with her reasoning and followed her upstairs to the attic where Freya and Davina were searching through grimoires.

"We're ready," Vincent announced, backing away from the circle.

Lizzie and Josie nodded and stepped inside the circle, waiting for Klaus to let them know that he was ready to begin the spell.

First, he hugged his siblings that were in the room (which might have been why Kol was so eager to leave). Then he hugged Marcel and shook Vincent's hand.

"I love you, my littlest wolf," Klaus told Hope, then kissed the top of her head.

"I love you, Dad," Hope replied.

Klaus turned to Caroline last, putting his hands on her shoulders as he spoke.

"Caroline, if the worst happens and I cannot be saved—" Klaus started.

"You can," Caroline interrupted softly. "I told you that years ago."

Klaus took a sharp breath as he remembered the day Caroline was referring to: her halting breaths as the venom coursed through her veins, the effortless way she saw through his façade of senseless villainy to reach the wounded human soul underneath, the courage and grace with which she faced her impending death.

"I believe you," Klaus responded.

He released her and approached the circle.

"Lizzie, Josie, whenever you're ready," Klaus told the twins.

The girls started chanting the words to the spell and pacing around the circle, just as they had the previous day.

After a few minutes, a glowing blue light was pulled out of Klaus's chest and flew into Aurora's.

Lizzie and Josie ran out of the circle, deliberately smudging the salt barrier as they went so that anyone—or anyone's magic—could enter to kill Aurora and the Hollow.

Aurora's eyes snapped open, her irises glowing the same eerie shade of blue as the light the twins had pulled out of Klaus. So the Hollow had taken ahold of Aurora's body. That was a good sign.

Aurora, in the slow movements that reminded Caroline of zombies in horror movies, got to her feet and surveyed the room, her eyes landing on where Hope was standing next to Klaus.

"Hope, get out of here, now!" Klaus ordered.

"It'll want you, too. If you're staying, I'm staying," Hope challenged.

Before Klaus could argue, Hope raced over to Elijah, retrieved the white oak stake he had confiscated from Klaus while he was unconscious, and cast a spell to send it hurtling through the air at high speed before burying itself in Aurora's heart.

The bright blue light faded from Aurora's eyes, leaving a murky dark green or hazel color in its place.

"It worked," Hope gasped triumphantly.

Before Aurora's body could fall to the ground, Josie cast another spell, setting the body on fire.

They all watched in silence as the flames consumed Aurora, the Hollow, and the last weapon that could kill an Original Vampire.

{ }

"Phones, please," Lizzie extended her hand towards Hope.

Hope just stared at her.

"Lizzie…" Josie interjected quietly.

"You offered us the new cell phones purchased for us in exchange for performing a spell. We've performed the spell, and we'd like our payment now, so that we can go home," Lizzie continued, ignoring her twin.

Hope shook her head as if to clear it.

"Has anyone ever told you how selfish you are?" Hope asked.

"If I were really as selfish as you think I am, I would be watching _Gossip Girl_ in my room right now, and you would be an orphan," Lizzie retorted.

Hope sobered.

"You're right, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"It's not the first time someone has called me that, and I'm sure it won't be the last," Lizzie shrugged.

Hope reached into her bag and pulled out the boxes containing the two phones, handing one to each of the twins.

"I don't know if I'm disappointed in you two for accepting a bribe, or for asking for so little," Caroline said. "I don't think you have any idea just how wealthy this family is. I mean, Klaus once sent me a check for three million dollars."

"For what?" Lizzie asked, tearing open her box. "If it's dirty, don't answer."

Caroline laughed, as did Klaus, Rebekah, and Marcel. Hope and Josie looked just as disturbed as Lizzie did.

"It was for allowing his daughter to attend the school I founded," she answered. "And the money went towards the dorm expansion and the chemistry lab."

"You should have given us a heads-up," Lizzie insisted. "'Girls, if Hope or her family ever try to bribe you, don't settle for anything less than everything you've ever wanted, because they're filthy rich.' You're supposed to be looking out for us, Mom."

"I apologize for my lack of foresight," Caroline offered, trying not to laugh at Lizzie's indignation.

"Well, your girls shouldn't have to suffer for it," Klaus cut in. "They did this family a great service today, and we believe in rewarding those who help us. I'll go cut them a check."

He dashed off to another room in the massive house.

"I'm sure I can find something suitable for them in my old jewelry collection," Rebekah added, speeding upstairs.

While they were gone, Lizzie and Josie pulled their new phones out of the boxes. Klaus had also bought them cases to go along with the phones, presumably so that they would be able to tell them apart. Josie's case had periwinkle blue and lilac purple stripes with a square made of the same purple color containing a lilac letter 'J' on a periwinkle background, and Lizzie's was light pink with red polka dots and a red circle containing a red letter 'L' on a light pink background.

Hope reached into her bag and retrieved her own phone, which wore a case made of navy blue glitter decorated with silver glitter stars and crescent moons.

"I'm sure everyone will want you to have their numbers," Hope said, opening her phone's address book so that the twins could copy the Mikaelsons' phone numbers into their own contacts lists.

Klaus and Rebekah returned from different directions a moment later, with Kol, Davina, Freya, and Keelin trailing after Klaus.

Klaus handed each of the girls an envelope.

Their eyes went so comically wide when they saw the amount written on the checks that Caroline almost worried they would fall out of their sockets.

After they both stuttered shocked thank yous, Rebekah stepped forward and handed them each a jewelry box.

Each box contained a tennis bracelet and a pair of matching earrings. Josie's were princess-cut sapphires and Lizzie's were round-cut rubies. When Hope looked left out, Rebekah retrieved a third set, this one of emerald-cut emeralds.

"They're too simple for my taste, but they're very pretty and quite appropriate for girls your ages," Rebekah explained, adding that she had been saving the emeralds to give to Hope for a special occasion, since the green gems were her niece's birthstone.

"The Hope Diamond is too simple for your taste, Bekah," Kol teased.

The three girls each thanked Rebekah and quickly put on their new jewelry.

Elijah cleared his throat. He'd been silent for so long that Caroline had almost forgotten his presence in the room.

"This has been quite an emotional day, and if my presence is no longer required here, I would like to visit the bayou before the sun sets completely," he announced.

"I want to come with you," Hope replied hurriedly, throwing her phone back in her bag.

Elijah nodded in agreement.

"But we need to celebrate that we resolved this crisis and we're all still alive!" Freya insisted. She checked her watch. "Let's all meet back here for a celebratory dinner in two hours. No excuses, no exceptions."

Elijah nodded again, and he and Hope left the room.

"I want to visit Josh before we leave the city," Davina told Kol.

"I'll come with you," Marcel chimed in.

"And I want to visit Ivy," Vincent added.

The foursome left together with a promise to return for dinner soon.

"I should pack up all of the grimoires we ended up not needing to use, and then get started on dinner so that those of us who eat real food have something to eat," Freya announced.

"I'll help you," Keelin offered.

Only Klaus, Caroline, Lizzie, Josie, and Rebekah remained in the room.

"You know, today is Mardi Gras, so New Orleans is at its most festive. Let's go get beignets, and I will give you two the ten-cent tour, and I'll even get you some real, authentic Mardi Gras beads, no flashing required," Rebekah told the twins.

"Mom, can we go?" Josie asked.

"Sure, have fun," Caroline agreed. "You'll be safe with Rebekah. Please listen to her, she's older than you, stronger than you, and she knows the city way better than you do. You have your phones, so take pictures and call me if you need anything."

The twins eagerly agreed and followed Rebekah out of the room.

Caroline turned to face Klaus.

"So, we should probably talk now," she said.

{ }

Klaus led Caroline upstairs to his bedroom and closed the door behind them.

"We're the only vampires in the house, so no one will overhear, and Rebekah will announce herself when she and your daughters return," Klaus told her, crossing the room to stand next to his desk.

Caroline looked at him quizzically, casting her eyes over the large bed, easel, table, and dresser before moving to lean against the closet door.

"You didn't really think that my sister was suddenly overcome with the urge to fight through crowds of tourists with two thirteen-year-old girls she just met, did you? She was trying to give us some privacy," Klaus elaborated.

"Well, that was nice of her," Caroline replied.

"She has her moments," Klaus remarked.

After an awkward pause, Caroline said, "I'm not exactly sure where to start."

"Well, how did you end up involved in this scheme of Hope's?" Klaus asked.

"After Ric brought the girls back, I was sitting in the common room alone, just thinking about everything, when I heard Hope and Elijah discussing some spell she wanted to perform to get someone to want to help her save you. When I figured out that it was me they were talking about, I went outside to offer my help, and then Hope snapped my neck," Caroline explained.

"I apologize for her treatment of you throughout this ordeal," Klaus said. "Much like her father, Hope possesses a single-minded determination that blinds her to everything but her goal."

"She just snapped my neck. Like mother, like daughter," Caroline shrugged. "And Hope did apologize, which is more than Hayley did. In fact, I think Hayley called me stupid before snapping my neck."

"I apologize for Hayley's treatment of you in the past, as well," Klaus offered. "Can I ask, what is it that you saw while you were under the influence of Hope's spell?"

"A bored, miserable Caroline who hid who she was and settled for less than she deserved because no one ever told her she was worth more than she thought she was," Caroline replied. "What about you?"

"I saw an isolated, monomaniacal Klaus who never found something new to do with his life after breaking his curse; who loved no one, trusted no one, and would be missed by no one if he disappeared or died," Klaus answered. "And at least you had some warning about what Hope was planning. She snuck up on me and snapped my neck, cast this spell upon me, then I woke up here."

"The girls filled me in on how it is we all ended up here," Caroline told him. "After Hope put the spell on us, she bribed my daughters to come with her and Elijah back to New Orleans, using the new cell phones you bought them, which, for the record, I explicitly told them they could not have. Now, I'm not going to make them return a gift, but in the future I would appreciate you not going behind my back to buy my children something that I refused to purchase for them myself."

Klaus nodded, looking a little sheepish.

The expression quickly melted away as he teased, "But you have no problems with them accepting the checks I wrote them or the jewelry Rebekah gave them, each of which are several times the value of the phones."

"It's the principal of the thing," Caroline insisted.

"Whatever you say, love," Klaus smirked.

There was another awkward pause.

"Can I ask you something?" Caroline asked.

"Of course," Klaus answered.

"Ric told me that he thought you were going to ask me to kill you last night," Caroline said. "Were you?"

"There are very few people in the world that I trust, Caroline," Klaus responded. "Even fewer were in Mystic Falls. When you told me that you weren't going to stand in my way, because I was finally being the good father and good person you'd always wanted me to be, I considered it. But then I found out that you'd told Elijah about my plan, which could only be because you wanted someone to stop me without going back on your word, and Alaric told me that you couldn't bring yourself to witness my death. I almost hesitated then. I always hated the situation I'd found myself in, but I'd never hated it more than that moment, when I realized you were wrong."

"Wrong about what?" Caroline asked.

"What you wanted," Klaus answered. "You told me that my becoming a good person and a good father was all you ever wanted from me. But it isn't. You don't want another noble hero like Stefan Salvatore who is so concerned about being a good person that he never even stops to consider what it means to be a good husband. You want someone who will be selfish and greedy with you, who can never spend enough time with you, even if you spent every second of every day together. Someone who would fight to the death for the chance to see you smile just one more time, but would sacrifice his life in a heartbeat to save yours. You don't want a safe relationship, because you've had that and it ended the exact way you always knew it would, and that allowed you to protect yourself, because you'd been preparing yourself for the day that Stefan sacrificed you, and his relationship with you, for Damon or Elena since the day you decided you wanted to be with him."

Tears rolled down Caroline's cheeks as she listened to Klaus's words, knowing that, even though she didn't want to hear them, he was right.

"You're right," Caroline admitted. "I saw the epic love that Stefan and Elena had, and I wanted it for myself. I should have realized that just because a guy was the perfect boyfriend to your best friend, doesn't mean he's going to be the perfect boyfriend to you. In fact, it almost certainly means he won't."

"In terms of immortal life, you're still very young, Caroline," Klaus pointed out. "And when it comes to vampires making choices they later regret when they're in their first few decades, marrying a friend who died to protect people he loved is not the worst mistake you could have made."

"I don't regret it," Caroline corrected. "At least, I don't think I do. But I'm ready to move on. I can't believe I spent ten years mourning someone who couldn't even be my husband for ten hours."

"It's his loss, you know," Klaus offered.

"I know," Caroline replied softly. "You know, when I found out—from Alaric, not even from Stefan himself, who didn't even answer my phone call—what Stefan planned to do, I told him that I understood. And I did. You were right, I always knew that Damon and Elena meant more to Stefan than I ever did. But I didn't understand what you were doing, and how you could be so passive about it. I mean, maybe it's just because I'd already been through it with Stefan, but it did feel like just another person sacrificing themselves to save someone else and not caring enough to stick around for me. And then part of me couldn't believe how much you'd changed. Eighteen-year-old me would have never believed that you would one day love someone more than your own life."

"If there was anyone who could have seen it coming, it was you," Klaus said.

"I think the craziest thing about the alternate universe that Hope showed me was that the other Caroline didn't even know what she was missing. I mean, I missed you, but I knew you. She'd never even met you, yet she still somehow missed you anyway. The other Caroline grew up to marry this nice enough but nondescript guy who never knew she wasn't human, and they adopted these twin girls, and it was just so similar to my real life, except she was actually better off than I am, because at least she had a husband who loved her even if he loved a version of her that wasn't real, and all I have is Alaric, who for some reason still thinks he loves me when it's really obvious that he actually just loves my uterus for carrying his children. So in addition to helping serve Hope's actual purpose, this spell also showed me how unhappy I am in my real life. And it showed me that no matter what I do or where I go, even if it's an alternate universe, there will always be a Klaus-shaped hole in my life if you're not there."

"Then you need to consider what you do, and where you go, and who you go there with so that you can be happy," Klaus said.

"You," Caroline answered simply. "You were right. Small-town life isn't enough for me. I want adventure, and freedom, and epic love. All of the things that you promised me. And yesterday, for those few minutes I thought you were dead, because I'd been too much of a coward to go out there with you…"

Caroline broke off with a gasping sob.

"Caroline…" Klaus took a step forward, trying to reach out and comfort her.

"I knew I could have stopped you, which is why I couldn't stop you," Caroline continued. "You would hate me if I'd saved you and let Hope die, and I would hate me if I'd saved Hope and let you die."

"It's okay, love," Klaus said softly, taking her hands in his own.

"I have to leave Mystic Falls," Caroline announced in a change of subject that would seem abrupt for anyone who didn't know her. "Everyone there knows me, and it's getting more and more obvious that I don't look like the thirty-something mom of teenagers I should be if I were aging. I know I didn't exactly show up at your door, but I was hoping your offer to show me all that the world has to offer was still good?"

The look on Klaus's face was nothing short of sublime joy.

"I said I would wait however long it takes, and I meant it," Klaus replied.

"I want to stay close while the girls are still in school," Caroline said matter-of-factly, slipping easily into planning mode. "I know that they'll be fine without me at the school, I just don't want to miss them growing up. I want to be there for birthdays, and prom, and graduation, and everything that's important to them."

Klaus walked back over to the desk and picked up a box containing letters.

"These are all of the letters Hayley wrote me while I couldn't be near Hope without putting her life in danger," Klaus said. "Trust me, I understand not wanting to miss a moment of your child's life."

Caroline noticed the stamps on all of the envelopes.

"You never got any of these?" Caroline asked incredulously. "Why didn't she just ask Freya to magic-mail them to you?"

"You call it 'magic-mail?'" Klaus confirmed.

"If this relationship is going to work, you're going to need to accept my love of alliteration," Caroline responded.

Klaus just smiled.

Caroline picked up the first letter and the accompanying picture.

"Wow, this must have been when she was about nine?" Caroline guessed, scanning the letter for a date or age. "I'm sorry, did Hayley really just refer to her betrayal of twelve hybrids for the purpose of leading them to their deaths as 'petty crap?' And I used to think you were callous and unfeeling."

"Speaking of Hayley, there's something you should know, that will affect Hope," Klaus said. "I think you already know that Hayley was the Alpha of the Crescent Wolf Pack, and she also served as the representative for the werewolf faction in the council of sorts that Vincent oversaw during my family's absence from the city. Freya represented the witches, and Josh represented the vampires."

"Okay," Caroline waited for him to continue.

"As the only child of the recently deceased Alpha, Hope has inherited her mother's title," Klaus went on. "If she doesn't accept her role, and that of the wolves' representative, she could leave a power vacuum that could be dangerous not just for the wolves but for the entire city, depending on how violent those who attempt to usurp her throne decide to be."

"But she's just a kid!" Caroline exclaimed.

"I know, but if she waits until she's ready, whoever rules in her absence may acquire a taste for power and decide not to give it back when Hope returns home to follow in her mother's footsteps," Klaus lamented.

Just then, they heard the footsteps climbing up the stairs.

"We're home! Put your clothes back on if you haven't already!" Rebekah shouted.

"Ew!" "Gross!" the twins groaned.

"Sorry," Rebekah said quickly.

Klaus rolled his eyes and opened his bedroom door.

Rebekah, Lizzie, and Josie were standing in the hallway.

Each of the twins was wearing a thick stack of Mardi Gras beads around their necks and each of their wrists, Lizzie's yellow and Josie's purple. Over their sweaters, they each wore a shirt with a fleur-de-lys on it, proudly proclaiming that they'd attended the authentic Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans and the date.

"Wow, you girls went all out," Caroline commented.

"We decided to color code. We're saving the green ones for Hope," Lizzie replied.

"Of course your daughter loves color-coding," Rebekah sarcastically cheered. "Other than some slight uptight tendencies, I was pleasantly surprised by how delightful your children are, Caroline."

"I feel like she just insulted us, but I'm not totally sure," Lizzie said.

"Rebekah's compliments don't sound much different than her insults," Caroline told her.

"You're Southern, Caroline, you should be an expert at backhanded compliments," Rebekah scoffed.

"Are you kidding me? You once called me beautiful and implied I was a gold-digger in the same breath," Caroline shot back.

"When did I do that?"

"At the ball?" Caroline reminded her. "'Of course she looks beautiful, Nik gave her everything she's wearing.'"

"Who's Nik?" Josie asked, fiddling with a strand of purple beads.

"That's me," Klaus answered.

"I thought Mom said your name was Klaus," Josie said, puzzled.

"My full name is Niklaus. Most people call me Klaus, a few members of my family call me Nik, which they've done since we were children. You can call me whichever you prefer," Klaus offered.

"Thanks, but Mom calls you Klaus, so I think that's what we're going to go with too," Josie decided.

"So, girls, how did you like New Orleans?" Caroline asked the twins.

Both girls started chattering excitedly about everything they'd seen, and how infectious the energy of the city was, and how delicious beignets were.

"I'm glad you like it, because I just thought of an idea," Caroline said.

{ }

 _Epilogue—Two Years Later_

Caroline Forbes prided herself on being a problem-solver.

So when the problems of her needing to leave Mystic Falls, her wanting to stay near Lizzie and Josie until they graduated, her desire to be with Klaus, and Hope's need to stay in New Orleans to assume her responsibilities as Alpha of her werewolf pack started percolating in her head, they all seemed to point to one solution.

It took her all of five minutes to realize that the answer to all of their problems was for her to open a second campus of the Salvatore School in New Orleans.

The city boasted a large supernatural population, which would offer them community support and a chance for students to see what species coexisting outside of an academic environment looked like. Caroline would no longer get puzzled or judgmental looks for not aging, since New Orleans was much more accepting of vampires than Mystic Falls, so she could remain there for the remainder of the twins' academic careers. Hope could stay in school, Klaus could stay with Hope, and Caroline could stay with Klaus.

They only person who wasn't enthusiastic about the idea was Alaric. When Caroline had told him her plan, he accused her of once again letting Klaus cloud her judgment. The resulting awkward pause when Caroline had informed him that she and Klaus were in a relationship went on for so long that Caroline was certain Ric had hung up.

After several days of consideration, Alaric decided to remain at the main campus of the school in Mystic Falls rather than coming along to help start the new branch.

It had taken a lot of work—and a lot of Klaus's money—to get the school up and running, but the long-awaited first day of school had finally arrived.

"Good morning, girls," Caroline greeted Lizzie, Josie, and Hope, enthusiastically. "Let me see those uniforms!"

The girls were all wearing the standard white button-down collared shirt and the navy blue plaid skirt, but they each wore a different sweater. Hope was wearing a navy blue pull-over with a V-neck, Josie was wearing a mustard yellow sweater with such a high neckline that only the collar of her shirt peaked out, and Lizzie was wearing a heather grey button-down cardigan.

"Have we passed inspection, Mom?" Lizzie asked.

"Of course, you all look great," Caroline replied.

Three pairs of hands, one with matte teal green nail polish (Hope), one with iridescent silvery-blue nail polish (Josie), and one with red glitter nail polish (Lizzie) all dove into the plate of beignets sitting on the dining room table.

Caroline and Alaric had debated back-and-forth over which school the girls would attend. Each of them knew that they would be perfectly safe and content at either school, where one of their parents would be present and the other absent. Alaric argued that moving the girls would be disruptive to their learning, while Caroline countered that starting a new school year at a new school in a city they loved wouldn't hurt them.

Eventually, they had agreed to allow the girls to choose, with the condition that neither of them could do anything to persuade them either way.

Unfortunately for Alaric, he hadn't made sure to get Klaus to agree to that rule.

Naturally, Lizzie and Josie chose New Orleans. Alaric still wasn't speaking to Caroline.

"Good morning," Klaus greeted as he walked into the room.

Klaus had arranged for the school to be built on a massive piece of land where he used to own a home until it had burned down in a fire only months before Hope was born. When he'd designed the place, he'd taken care to include a house at the very end of the building for the five of them, which had its own separate entrance to offer them some privacy, while still being a part of the school. Each of the girls' rooms were almost double the size of a dorm room for two students to share, and Klaus had allowed them to choose the paint colors and decorate any way they wanted.

"We should get going, the first students should be arriving soon, and we're on welcome duty," Josie announced after checking her watch.

Hope groaned.

"I don't want to talk to a bunch of people who are going to treat me like a freak show because I'm the only tribrid and the youngest Alpha in the history of the Crescent Wolf Pack," she complained.

"There she goes again, ruining her potential to be a person who doesn't suck. First of all, we're the headmistress's kids, so you better get used to it, wicked stepsister," Lizzie retorted. "Second of all, no one is going to know or care that you're the youngest Wolf Queen ever. Third of all, if anyone gives you a dirty look, Josie will set them on fire. No big deal."

"Yes, big deal," Caroline cut in. "None of you will be setting anyone on fire, is that clear?"

"Fine," all three girls grumbled.

"Okay, then let's go," Caroline instructed.

The girls picked up their school bags and left the house, walking over to the front doors, which had been propped open to reveal the entrance hall behind them.

"Here," Caroline handed the girls two file folders. "I have to go introduce myself to every parent and ensure them that their precious little blood-sucking, slash spell-casting, slash species-changing babies will perfectly safe here. I need you three to check in the students and give them their class schedules."

The three girls sat down at a table set up just inside the doors while Caroline walked down the driveway to the main gate.

After handing out schedules to two witches and a vampire, the next student to approach them made Hope sit up and take notice.

"I wonder who he is," she said.

"That's Patrick Burton. He's a werewolf who triggered his curse last year when he saved a teammate of his on the Mathletes from being mugged and ended up accidentally killing the mugger. His mother's family comes from Ireland, and his father's side of the family is German. He was born in Boston, he's a huge Celtics fan, his favorite color's green, and he's a Leo, so you're compatible, but not the most compatible pairing possible," Lizzie rattled off.

"And I was worried about people thinking I was a freak," Hope responded.

"Hello and welcome to the new New Orleans campus of the Salvatore School," Lizzie greeted cheerfully. "I'm Lizzie, that's my twin sister Josie, and our step-sister Hope."

Hope was clearly surprised by Lizzie's description of her. Lizzie had been calling Hope her 'wicked step-sister' since their parents had told them they were together, but she'd never called her her step-sister before.

"This doesn't mean I like you, I just don't have time to explain the Klaus and Caroline saga. Homeroom starts in twenty minutes," Lizzie explained.

"Our parents aren't actually married, but we wish they would get married, if only so that they'll have something to call each other. Remember the week they decided to refer to each other as 'eternal life partners?' I cringed for seven days straight, my face will never be the same," Lizzie shifted from talking to Patrick to talking to Josie and Lizzie as she spoke.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad," Hope agreed.

"Well any school that uses the PowerPuff Girls as the welcoming committee is all right in my book," Patrick replied easily.

"Don't let the hair fool you, the redhead is actually Buttercup, and the brunette is Blossom," Lizzie commented.

"But you aren't Bubbles, Liz, you aren't cheerful or innocent. Your favorite movie is _Titanic_ ," Hope countered.

"My favorite movie was _Titanic_. Now I can't watch it without thinking about your dad drawing Mom like one of his French girls," Lizzie corrected.

Hope and Josie both groaned.

"So you needed the rest of us to suffer, too?" Josie questioned.

"I jump, you jump, Jack," Lizzie smirked.

"You know I'm Team Jess."

"I sincerely apologize for taking up all of the oxygen in the womb, because there's no other explanation for your poor taste."

"Are they always like that?" Patrick asked Hope.

"Not at all; usually it's me and Lizzie who are arguing and Josie's the peacemaker," Hope answered.

Hope was grateful she was sitting down, otherwise Patrick's forest green eyes would have made her weak in the knees. She signed him in and handed him his schedule, turning to watch as he walked away.

"Did it work?" Lizzie asked.

"Did what work?" Hope asked.

"Our plan to make sure that you got to talk to the cute werewolf who you're obviously developing a crush on as we speak," Lizzie explained. "Did you really think we would argue for five minutes over a show that's been off the air for years without ulterior motives?"

"That's a trick question, because I know that you can argue about anything, but I also know that you always have ulterior motives," Hope answered. "So I'm not surprised that you had the idea, nor am I surprised that Josie played along."

In between greeting parents, Caroline listened in on the girls' conversations.

She had been worried about moving the twins to New Orleans and how they would adjust to having Klaus, Hope, and the rest of the Mikaelsons in their lives, but they'd quickly adapted and seemed to like having the New Orleans faction of the Mikaelsons around.

Elijah had left New Orleans shortly after the Hollow had been defeated, unable to see the city as anything other than the backdrop of his relationship with Hayley. Kol and Davina had returned to their own separate lives shortly thereafter. Rebekah and Marcel, and Freya and Keelin had decided to stay. Vincent, after growing tired of supernatural politics, had been planning to leave the city, but when Caroline had offered him a job as a professor at the school, he had gladly accepted the opportunity to help train young witches to use their magic for good.

"What are you smiling at?" Klaus asked as he walked up behind her.

"Our girls are getting along," Caroline told him. "Acting like sisters."

"Well, that's what they are, aren't they?" Klaus asked.

"Technically not, though apparently they want us to get married if only so that we'll stop embarrassing them with our attempts to find alternatives to 'husband and wife' that accurately portray the permanence of our relationship," Caroline said.

"I'll take it under advisement," Klaus replied, which under any other circumstances would mean an automatic yes to whatever the girls wanted.

"Whether they're legally related or not, I'm glad they have each other," Caroline said. "I've already started brainstorming our itinerary for once the twins graduate."

"Really?"

"Yes, I'm trying to avoid the empty nest thing, it sounds sad," Caroline explained. "So I'm making plans to put Vincent in charge of the school and start our world adventure as soon as our girls don't need us day-in-and-day-out anymore."

"I told you I would take you wherever you wanted, and I intend to keep that promise," Klaus smiled.

"And since you only have pure intentions…" Caroline trailed off with a grin. "I'm sorry, I have to go make a speech during the welcome assembly we planned for homeroom today. I'll see you at dinner tonight, if I can't find a way to sneak out and see you earlier. I love you."

She stretched up on her toes to kiss Klaus.

"I love you, too," he replied.

* * *

Thank you very much for reading!

I would love to know what you thought, so please leave a review; I love reading them!

lots of love,  
charlotte


	4. lightning strikes the heart

Hello lovely readers!

Here is the gift I wrote for the Klaroline Sweet Swap Valentine's Day Gift Exchange. It is an all-human college AU romantic comedy trope-fest, inspired by a tweet I saw about not having a New Year's kiss and also not having a valentine, which made me want to write something in which Klaus is Caroline's New Year's kiss and her valentine, and my imagination spun out of control from there.

I really hope you like it!

The title comes from Colbie Caillat's song, "Brighter Than the Sun."

* * *

 _New Year's Eve_

Caroline's year had ended on a very strange note to say the least: at a party she hadn't wanted to attend, in a crowded bar, surrounded by hordes of drunken partygoers, none of whom she knew, since her best friend and roommate who had insisted she come with her was off flirting with a handsome man in a suit.

Caroline's preferred way to spend New Year's Eve was on her couch, with a bottle of cheap champagne and Ryan Seacrest for company, but Katherine had seen a flyer promising half-price drinks until midnight at Wasted Minds, the bar near campus, and Katherine wouldn't be Katherine if she didn't take any opportunity to dress up and consume cheap alcohol.

And when Caroline had told Katherine that she didn't want to go, Katherine had refused to take no for an answer.

In the end, Katherine had ended up convincing Caroline to come by using her New Year's resolution—spend more time with friends—against her. Although fighting through loud masses of revelers at a bar wasn't the image of quality bonding time that she'd imagined, Caroline had decided that if her friend really wanted her at the party, she would go.

So while Katherine donned her shortest, tightest dress—the black one designed to look like it was made out of leather, with the zipper down the front, the low-cut front and the even-lower-cut back—something she wore when she was looking for male attention, or trouble, which—when certain men forgot their manners, or their girlfriends—often garnered both, Caroline selected a long-sleeved, ice pink velvet skater dress that felt both festive and modest.

The contrast between the two girls' styles didn't end there. Katherine towered over Caroline in fierce black stilettos that had to be at least five inches tall, while Caroline chose comfortable grey ankle boots with a sensible wedge heel. Katherine refused to cover her outfit with a jacket, while Caroline bundled up with nude tights under her dress and a grey blazer over it. Katherine had the confidence, the exotic beauty, and the talent at applying makeup to pull off both smoky eyes and a matte wine color on her lips, while Caroline opted for a sheer wash of shimmering bronze on her eyelids and clear lip gloss. Katherine left her long, wild curls loose, while Caroline pulled her hair up into a neat ballerina bun.

"The party don't start 'til I walk in…" Katherine announced as she opened the door, causing everyone within earshot to turn and look at her. Though with the volume of the music, and the conversations that needed to be shouted in order to be heard over the volume of the music, that wasn't very many people.

The bar was packed. A crowd of bodies occupied the dance floor, there was already a line for the ladies' room, and every table, booth, and barstool was occupied.

Katherine took another look around before turning back to Caroline.

"Drink first or dance first?" she shouted.

"Dance first!" Caroline yelled back, just as the song that Katherine had referenced when she'd made her grand entrance started playing at top volume through the speakers.

After several high-energy throwback dance jams that had the crowd shouting the lyrics enthusiastically, the next song was a slow dance. Caroline and Katherine, along with a significant portion of the crowd, took the opportunity to catch their breath and get a drink.

"I need water," Caroline panted.

"I'll be right back," Katherine said.

Katherine returned a few minutes later, handing Caroline her water.

"There's a guy at the bar who keeps looking at me every few minutes," Katherine told Caroline as quietly as she could.

Katherine was no stranger to male attention. She enjoyed it, encouraged it, sought it out. Caroline had always viewed it as the price that people as stunningly beautiful as Katherine had to pay for being so stunningly beautiful.

But that attitude was limited to innocuous behavior: lingering glances, offers to buy drinks, stuttered compliments.

"Is he making you uncomfortable?" Caroline asked.

Katherine had been subjected to harassment on multiple occasions, and those incidents always ended with Katherine making the harassers wish they'd never spoken to her, but now she seemed more confused than disturbed.

"He keeps looking at my face," Katherine explained. "Not my legs or my chest. And a lot of strategic planning went into making my cleavage look this good, so why isn't he looking at it?"

Caroline had to stifle a laugh. Only Katherine would be upset that she hadn't received attention for the physical attribute she'd made an effort to draw attention to.

"Which one is he?" Caroline asked.

"On the third stool from the right," Katherine answered.

Katherine had earned the attention she'd been looking for from a man who looked older than them by a few years and had clearly been coerced into attending the party by a younger sibling or friend, consider his bored expression that finally disappeared as soon as Kat made eye contact with him, as if she was the only thing there that he found worthy of his attention.

"Did you see the way he lit up when you looked at him? That's adorable," Caroline commented.

Katherine decided to approach him, pulling Caroline along with her, because "I need you to tell me if he's actually cute, or if he's just wearing a suit."

He introduced himself to them, clearly focused more on Katherine than Caroline as he told them that his name was Elijah, that he would be graduating in the spring with his MBA, and that he was wearing a suit because he'd just come from a board meeting at his father's company—where he was being groomed to eventually take over for the rapidly-approaching-retirement Chief Financial Officer—which had gone so poorly that he'd decided he needed a drink immediately, completely forgetting that it was New Year's Eve and a party was underway.

He'd stood up when he'd introduced himself to them, and another patron had immediately taken his seat. The crowd of people jostled them away from the bar, though none of them seemed overly concerned.

Caroline started to feel like an awkward third wheel only seconds into Elijah's story. He only had eyes for Katherine, and Kat seemed genuinely engaged in what he was saying, interjecting with thoughtful comments and questions interspersed with some flippant ones about what possessed him to voluntarily take so many math classes.

Katherine turned to Caroline and raised her eyebrows, silently asking, "He is cute, right? It isn't just the suit?"

In response, Caroline gave a slight nod to signal her agreement.

When Katherine seemed charmed when Elijah earnestly questioned how he'd never seen her on campus throughout his time at the university for both his graduate and undergraduate degrees (he'd double-majored in business administration—with double concentrations in accounting and finance—and economics, with a minor in applied statistics, which made Caroline feel like a stupid underachiever just hearing about it), she knew her friend was genuinely interested in him and it wasn't just the suit.

Upon first glance, Caroline wouldn't have thought that someone as conservative and stoic as Elijah would be Katherine's type, but after he apologized for monopolizing the conversation and asked Katherine about her own studies, Caroline realized that they actually did seem compatible. While directed towards different subject areas and goals, they both were equally intelligent, determined, ambitious, and focused. Caroline could see them having a solid relationship where they continually supported each other and pushed each other to be their best, and while Caroline wasn't mentally designing her maid of honor dress or anything like that, she could see that Katherine was interested in him for more than just that night's entertainment.

So when Elijah offered to buy them both a drink, Caroline politely declined and remained where she was while he and Katherine went to the bar.

Katherine offered Caroline a grateful smile as they walked away.

Caroline, certain that Katherine wouldn't be back any time soon, tried to stake out a spot to wait until midnight that was far enough from the dance floor, the bar, and the bathrooms that she wouldn't be in anyone's way.

It wasn't that Caroline was the shy, bookish type who hated parties, because she wasn't. As the events coordinator for her sorority, she spent a significant amount of her free time planning and attending parties.

Caroline just didn't like these kinds of parties, the kind where it seemed that the only purpose was to get as drunk as possible, as quickly as possible. There was no theme, no decorations, no ambience, just copious amounts of alcohol.

In fact, the only indication that this was a New Year's Eve party and not just an ordinary Friday night was thanks to the deejay who was blasting a playlist of songs that turned ten years old in 2019.

And while Caroline was enjoying the nostalgia of being in a room full of people screaming the lyrics to "Good Girls Go Bad" like it's 2009 as much as anyone else at the party, it wasn't enough to make the party festive or special, and the loud off-key screeching just served to remind Caroline how embarrassingly drunk many of the partygoers were.

A quick check of her phone showed Caroline that there was still over an hour until midnight.

Since she had some time to kill until she could go home—and Caroline had made Katherine promise that they could leave at exactly 12:01—Caroline navigated a path through the crowd towards the bar and ordered a diet Coke.

The bartender, who Caroline had seen working there before and had mentioned to Caroline on a prior occasion that she was pursuing her master's degree in psychology, promptly asked her if childhood trauma caused by an alcoholic parent was the reason she wasn't drinking.

Considering the answer was none of her business, Caroline remained pointedly silent as she paid for her drink.

Thanks to good fortune Caroline wasn't expecting, there was an empty booth in the corner. She rushed towards it, hoping that no one else got there first, and quickly sat down.

Only to discover a young man with dark blonde hair slouched in the opposite side of the booth.

His glassy eyes and uncoordinated movements indicated that the drink in front of him wasn't his first. He looked rumpled, in a grey button-down shirt with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't see you so I thought this booth was empty. But now I do see you, so I will leave you alone," Caroline quickly apologized and stood up.

"Since you're not my brother or my father, you're welcome to stay," the young man slurred. "It's quite selfish of me, really, to claim a whole booth for myself when the bar is so crowded."

Caroline remained standing, but didn't walk away. Sitting with a drunken stranger wasn't on her to-do list for the evening, but she didn't want to hide in the corner avoiding any interaction with anyone for the next hour either.

She glanced around, looking for Katherine, but she couldn't see her in the crowd.

"I mean it, feel free to sit there," he continued.

Caroline liked to think that she was a fairly good judge of character, and her instincts were telling her that this wasn't a bad guy. Sure, he'd apparently consumed more alcohol that evening than Caroline ever would, but he'd only been pleasant and polite to Caroline, repeating his invitation to sit with him without being pushy. There were far worse people in this bar right now, she was sure. And for the most part, the crowd was centered around the dance floor, the bar, and the bathrooms, leaving the booths stretching along the walls fairly calm in comparison.

Caroline hesitated for another moment before sitting back down.

"Thanks," she said.

He just nodded.

"I don't know if you care, or if you'll remember, but I'm Caroline, by the way," Caroline introduced herself.

"Sweet Caroline…" he sang drunkenly.

"Bum, bum, bum," someone sitting in the booth behind him obligingly sang along.

After a long moment, he seemed to remember that it was customary to introduce yourself to people you had just met, especially when they had already introduced themselves to you.

"Klaus," he said simply.

"Nice to meet you," Caroline replied politely.

For the next half an hour, they sat in a silence that wasn't exactly companionable, but somehow wasn't awkward either.

Caroline slowly sipped her soda and listened to the music. Occasionally she would make eye contact with her companion, and he would nod or smirk or wink to acknowledge her.

When Klaus finished his drink—one of those amber-colored, old businessmen drinks that Caroline couldn't tell by looking at it whether it was whiskey, scotch, or bourbon, since she wasn't a fan of any of them—he stood up and slid out of the booth.

"Is there whiskey in that?" he asked, pointing to her now mostly empty drink.

"No," Caroline shook her head.

"Rum?"

"No."

"Vodka?"

"No, it's just diet Coke," Caroline answered.

"All right, well, I'm going to the bar, and I might return with all three," he said.

"Okay," Caroline acknowledged.

When he returned a few minutes later, he had a drink identical to the one he'd just finished in one hand, and a diet Coke in the other.

He set Caroline's drink down in front of her.

"That woman is insufferable," he complained. "This is a bar, no one wants to talk about their childhood trauma with a stranger."

"Well, thank you," Caroline lifted the drink he had bought her.

It had been a kind gesture, and if Caroline had been observing the situation with Katherine in her place, she might have thought he had been trying to flirt, but they'd barely spoken a dozen sentences to each other—all about either the booth they were sitting in or the drinks they were drinking—and Caroline had long ago accepted that she didn't stun men into silence with her beauty the way that Katherine did.

So while Caroline certainly wouldn't mind if he did try to flirt with her (he might be a drunk stranger, but he was a cute drunk stranger!), he was clearly just being nice.

He nodded. "Don't mention it."

They lapsed back into another silence.

"You aren't planning on driving yourself home tonight, are you?" Caroline blurted out.

Klaus looked up at her with an odd, almost suspicious expression.

"No," he answered finally. "My brother drove us here, and he will drive us home. He lacks my temper, so he'll have had one drink when we first arrived, calmed down, and will be completely sober by the time we leave."

Caroline nodded and took another sip of her drink.

"I would ask about you, but you aren't drinking, so I assume you are the sober driver and there's no need for me to verify that you have one of your own," he remarked.

"Right," Caroline nodded.

They fell silent once more, until someone with a microphone shouted over the music that there was one minute until midnight.

The crowd immediately began a raucous countdown, some people floundering comically in their state of intoxication.

Caroline cheerfully joined in at 58 seconds, while Klaus waited until 30 seconds.

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"7!"

"6!"

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Happy New Year!"

Then they were surrounded by couples kissing. Some of them seemed to be in established relationships, while others seemed to be pairs of strangers who didn't want to miss out on the tradition.

Klaus caught Caroline's eye and shrugged as if to say, "I'm game if you are."

Then he leaned forward, slowly enough that his intent was clear and that Caroline could stop him if she was inclined.

But Caroline found that she wasn't inclined to stop him. He was good-looking, polite despite being so quiet, considerate enough to buy her a drink; and it was one kiss to keep with tradition and then they'd likely never see each other again.

Jenny McCarthy did it every year on TV, and some of those strangers she kissed had to have wives or girlfriends, not to mention the fact that she herself was married.

Compared to that, Caroline kissing Klaus at midnight because people kissed at midnight on New Year's and he was close-by and seemed interested was totally innocent.

So Caroline leaned forward as well until their lips met.

The kiss was surprisingly good. It wasn't sloppy, it wasn't an awkward peck, and it didn't escalate into an X-rated make-out session either.

They broke apart after a respectable amount of time—not as short as middle school students playing Spin the Bottle, but not so long that they only ended the kiss out of a desperate need for oxygen.

"I should find my roommate so we can get going," Caroline said timidly. "But it was nice meeting you."

"The pleasure was mine," Klaus replied.

"Bye," Caroline said quickly before hurrying away to look for Katherine.

She found her friend near the entrance of the bar, pouting at a reluctant-looking Elijah.

"Hey, Kat," Caroline greeted. "Are you ready to go?"

"Apparently I am," Katherine glared at Elijah.

"Katherine," he sighed, resting one hand on her shoulder and gently lifting her chin so that she had to look at him with the other. "I am not rejecting you. I eagerly anticipate the next time I am able to enjoy your company. But I made a commitment to my brother and I always honor my commitments. Perhaps I could take you out to dinner tomorrow evening, so that we can continue to get to know each other, in a setting that is more conducive to such a conversation?"

"I don't know what restaurants will be open on New Year's Day, but that sounds good to me," Katherine agreed.

"Excellent, I will call you in the morning," Elijah promised.

"Not too early," Katherine whined.

"Of course," Elijah chuckled, kissing Katherine on the cheek before walking away.

"Let's go," Katherine told Caroline.

By the time they reached Caroline's car, she could no longer contain her curiosity.

"So what happened?"

"You heard what happened, we're going on our first date tomorrow," Katherine said.

"Well, that's exciting!" Caroline exclaimed.

"We'll see," Katherine responded. "Let's hope I still like him as much as I do when I'm drunk when I'm sober. What about you? What did you get up to while I was with Elijah?"

Caroline squirmed under the weight of Katherine's full attention.

"I ordered a diet Coke and sat in a booth with a stranger who was sitting alone," Caroline answered.

"Did you kiss him?" Katherine asked.

"How did you know it was a him?" Caroline returned.

"I'm all-knowing," Katherine deadpanned. "Answer the question."

"Yes, I did," Caroline confessed. "He was cute and nice and it's tradition, but I don't know anything about him except his first name and I'm probably never going to see him again, so it's not like it matters."

"You never know."

{ }

Caroline had carefully planned her coursework so that she would finish all of her general education requirements by the end of her junior year, so that her final two semesters would be entirely devoted to her major.

But when she walked into her upper-division GE anthropology class, she couldn't help but wish that she'd planned her schedule differently.

There had been four sections of this course available, and she had to end up in the same one as both Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore.

She'd spent all last year trying to get away from those two and their endless drama, and now they would be stuck in a room together for an hour and fifty minutes every Monday and Wednesday for the next fourteen weeks.

Caroline did her best to steadfastly avoid eye contact with either of them, but Elena turned around in her seat to look at the clock at the same moment that Caroline looked in front of Elena for a seat in the first few rows.

Elena gave Caroline a wistful look that Caroline recognized as the one she wore when she was trying to guilt someone into taking the blame for something that had been her fault.

 _"Come on Caroline, you can't throw away our lifelong friendship over one fight."_

 _"As my friend, you should be happy for me."_

 _"I can't believe you're being so selfish!"_

After Caroline took a seat in the second row, she pulled out her phone to text Katherine.

 **Caroline:** S.O.S. 911 emergency please send help ASAP, Stefan and Elena are in this class

 **Katherine:** OMG have they tried to talk to you?

 **Caroline:** No, Elena's just given me her kicked puppy face

 **Katherine:** Except it's Elena, so instead of looking like that because you kicked her puppy, it's because she killed your puppy and to make amends she brought you a new puppy that isn't nearly as cute and then acts devastated when you don't profusely praise her kindness and compassion

 **Caroline:** Your mind is a very dark and scary place, you know that?

 **Katherine:** In my defense, I do know that. Let me know how it goes!

 **Caroline:** Will do!

Caroline put her phone back in her bag as the professor approached the lecturn.

"Welcome to Anthropology 303: Language, Culture, and Society. I'm Dr. Meredith Fell," she said. "This course satisfies your upper-division Contemporary International Perspectives general education requirement, which I'm sure is why most of you are here, and will cover an introduction to linguistic anthropology; a brief history of language and human communication, both verbal and nonverbal; the development of language over time, especially as it relates to the development of human society; and analysis of the social, cultural, political, and economic impacts of language from both national and international perspectives. If none of that sounds familiar to you, you either signed up for this course without reading the description, or you're in the wrong place and you should probably go find the class you're supposed to be in right now."

"I'm passing around a sign-in sheet, please sign your name next to where it is printed on the roster so that I can see who didn't bother to show up on the first day so that I can start giving away their spots to people on the waitlist who did show up on the first day," Dr. Fell continued.

At least the professor had a sense of humor.

Caroline wasn't sure how many people were enrolled in the class, but the lecture hall was by no means full. In her row alone, there were two empty seats to her right and one on the aisle to her left.

The sound of the doors opening caused everyone to turn around and look at whoever had just walked in. Caroline couldn't see them from her vantage point in the right side of the front section of seats, which was on the opposite side of the hall from the doors.

Instead, Caroline busied herself by pulling out the desk attached to her seat and readying it with her notebook, planner, and different colored pens.

"Ordinarily, I do not look favorably upon those who are tardy, but since it is the first day, I will be lenient," Professor Fell announced.

Caroline didn't look up until someone sat down in the aisle seat next to her.

And immediately did a double take.

"Hello, love," said Klaus.

Klaus, as in, the guy who she kissed on New Year's and assumed she would never see again.

That Klaus.

"Hi," Caroline replied.

As the professor started to hand out syllabi, a piece of paper landed on Caroline's desk.

 _'Am I making you uncomfortable? If so, I can make sure to sit far enough away that I won't disturb you next class meeting,'_ the note read.

Caroline found herself both touched and unnerved by his solicitous concern. While it was nice of him to offer to accommodate her comfort with his presence, he must possess a certain level of arrogance to consider the idea that he had any effect on her after only one kiss.

 _'I appreciate your concern, but you aren't bothering me. You can sit wherever you want,'_ Caroline wrote back, hoping that her message was sincere enough if he was only trying to be nice, as well as detached enough if he was just being smug and trying to tease her.

Klaus quickly scanned her reply, then nodded and tucked the piece of paper into his notebook before turning his attention back to the professor.

Even though he didn't initiate any communication for the rest of the class, Caroline was still obsessively conscious of his presence next to her. It was disorienting, and made it difficult for her to pay attention.

This is going to be a long semester, Caroline thought to herself.

It was a blessing when the professor let them go after they read over the syllabus.

"Wait, Care!" a voice called out from behind her as Caroline made her way out of the lecture hall.

Caroline reluctantly turned around and faced Stefan, who was looking at her expectantly.

"How was your winter break?" Stefan asked.

"Fine, thank you," Caroline answered curtly.

"Good," Stefan nodded. "So, the reason I wanted to talk to you was—"

"Let me guess, Elena's with Damon again," Caroline interrupted.

"Well, yes, that's true, but that isn't why—"

"And now that Elena has dumped you for your brother, again, you've assumed that, since you think I possess no self-esteem, I'll jump at the chance to get back together with you," Caroline continued as if Stefan hadn't interrupted.

"I mean, I've thought about getting back together, but it wasn't because of Elena and Damon," Stefan insisted.

"Really?" Caroline raised her eyebrows.

"I was hoping you would be more amenable to the idea," Stefan admitted. "Weren't you happy with me?"

"Sometimes," Caroline responded. "But Damon and Elena have always been more important to you than me, and they always will be. Whenever either of them would call, you'd come running, and you would leave me in the dust without a second thought. I don't think that you're a bad guy, Stefan, but I was always your last choice and your last priority, and that isn't fair to me, or whoever else you have a relationship with until you get over Elena and start letting Damon clean up his own messes."

Caroline could almost see the wheels in Stefan's head turning as he changed tactics.

"Okay, well, how about this," Stefan started. "You're planning the Valentine's Day charity event for Sigma Chi Omega again this year, right?"

"Yes," Caroline answered.

"Let me be your date to the party," Stefan proposed. "I'll ignore Damon and Elena if they call, and we can have a fun night where we get to know each other again after some time apart and decide once and for all if we should get back together, or if we want to take a break, or if we're better off as just friends."

"I don't want to do that," Caroline told him.

"Why not?" Stefan questioned.

"Seriously? I don't owe you an explanation for why I don't want to go out with you!" Caroline explained. "Actually, it's going to bother me if I don't take this opportunity to remind you of your horrible boyfriend behavior. Because you broke up with me nine months ago, the day after Elena and Damon broke up and you decided that your top priorities were winning Elena back and keeping Damon sober so that he didn't hurt himself or anyone else, and now you want to think of it as us taking a break? What is wrong with you?!"

"I don't think my suggestion was so unreasonable," Stefan insisted. "It's one night. What do you have to lose? The only reason I can think of that you would have to object would be if you had a boyfriend. Do you have a boyfriend?"

"That's really none of your business, nor is it relevant," Caroline insisted. "I don't want you to be my date to the party, and whether or not I already have a date has no impact on my refusal to go to the party with you."

"You do have a boyfriend," Stefan nodded to himself. "You must, or you wouldn't be so vehemently opposed to going to the party with me."

Biting back a frustrated scream, Caroline wondered why so many guys couldn't seem to believe that a girl might just not be interested in going out with them, why they couldn't take no for an answer when it came from her, but that they would back off immediately when they found out another guy was already in the picture.

While Caroline was pondering the appalling misogyny of male college students, she heard the familiar voice of a different male college student call her name.

"Caroline, there you are," Klaus said as he walked quickly towards Caroline and Stefan, holding a cup from Starbucks in each hand. He leaned in close to Caroline. "You may not want to have this argument right in the middle of the lobby between classes, love, you're making a scene."

Caroline glanced around, and sure enough there were a few people giving her judgmental looks.

"Oh, and this is for you," Klaus said, giving one of the cups he was holding to Caroline.

Caroline took a tentative sip and was pleasantly surprised to taste the skinny vanilla latte inside, though she wasn't sure how Klaus would have known her Starbucks order.

"Thank you," Caroline told him.

"Is this your new boyfriend, Care?" Stefan asked.

"Klaus Mikaelson," Klaus extended his right hand for Stefan to shake.

"Stefan Salvatore," Stefan hesitantly reached out his own hand.

"Ah, yes, I've heard quite a bit about you, mate," Klaus said with a cold, almost predatory smile. "Though letting Caroline go was obviously the worst decision you've ever made, I suppose I should be grateful for it, since I probably never would have met her if you hadn't."

Caroline could hardly contain her delight when she saw that Stefan seemed genuinely uncomfortable in response to Klaus's words. Even if he wasn't listening to her, at least someone was putting Stefan in his place.

(And she was impressed by how quickly and easily Klaus was able to slip into the role of her boyfriend. But would she ever admit that out loud? Of course not.)

"Well, I hope you're happy with him, Care," Stefan forced out through gritted teeth. "I'm still planning to go to the event to support you, and the cause, so even if you can't be my date, maybe you can still save me a dance?"

Before Caroline could answer for herself, Klaus had once again already swooped in to save her.

"I'm afraid Caroline's dance card is full," Klaus responded, his voice even but with an audible note of possessiveness. "I would say I'm sorry, but I'm not. Can you blame me for wanting to keep this beautiful girl all to myself?"

To Caroline's surprise, Klaus lightly rested his free hand on her back in a possessive gesture.

"I guess I'll see you both there then," Stefan offered awkwardly. "See you later."

Looking as if he couldn't possibly escape fast enough, Stefan darted out of the building.

"Look," Caroline turned to face Klaus, but paused when she couldn't think of how to even begin to say what she needed to tell him.

"Do you have another class this morning?" Klaus interrupted. "I would be happy to escort you."

"Um, no. My next class isn't until one, I have a lunch/study break between classes today," Caroline answered.

"Then how about we discuss what just happened over lunch?" Klaus suggested. "I can't imagine that you have much studying to do on the first day of classes."

"Okay," Caroline agreed. "But, can I just ask, how did you know my coffee order?"

"I didn't," Klaus grinned. "I'd actually bought it for my sister. I guess I just got lucky."

{ }

The student center didn't have many dining options, but the nicest by far was the Super Salad, which tried way too hard to offer students healthy meal options while also giving them the ambience of a real restaurant and failed hilariously at both missions—though more the latter than the former, to its credit.

Caroline would never want to go on an actual date there, but considering her other options were the cafeteria with all of the freshmen forced to live on campus and buy the meal plan, and the sports bar that she was fairly certain only served fries, beer, and maybe wings if you were lucky, it was an acceptable venue for lunch with Klaus.

Once they'd ordered their food (Klaus paid, over Caroline's objections and insistence that she could pay for herself) and sat down in a booth, Klaus looked up at Caroline, his expression expectant but patient.

"I apologize, if the circumstances of our first meeting make you uncomfortable in my presence," Klaus said after a few moments of silence.

"That isn't it," Caroline insisted. "It's just that I owe you an explanation for the confrontation you walked into, and that explanation is not exactly flattering towards me."

"If you'd rather not explain, you don't have to," Klaus offered. "You can just tell me about this party I'm apparently escorting you to, and then we don't have to talk at all until then."

"If that's what you want," Caroline replied. "I can't imagine that anyone would voluntarily be involved in all of my drama."

"Perhaps I should confess that my motives for helping you aren't entirely in the interest of enjoying your company," Klaus suggested.

Caroline's heart sank. She'd been used before, by guys who only dated her to try to make Elena jealous, or who thought that her insecurities and abandonment issues would mean she would be easy and eager to put out. But no one else had ever announced from the get-go that they were using her, and she wasn't sure if she should be offended by Klaus's brazenness or if she should respect his honesty.

"Right," Caroline nodded emphatically. "Well, if you can just point out the girl you're trying to make jealous, or the ex you need to show that you've moved on first, I'll be sure to bring out the PDA while she's watching."

Klaus looked confused.

"That isn't it at all," he said. "I wasn't lying earlier when I said that I'd heard plenty about Stefan. He seems to have set his sights on my little sister, and Rebekah is something of a hopeless romantic who believes every boy who catches her eye is her soul mate. My hope is to kill two birds with one stone: get Stefan to leave both of you alone, get you the revenge against him you deserve, and protect Rebekah from needing revenge against him in the future by showing her how horribly he treated you."

Well. The protective big brother act was a new one.

"Will she listen to you, if you warn her about him?" Caroline asked.

"She usually doesn't," Klaus responded. "But she might listen to you. She'll have no reason to believe you're anything other than her brother's well-meaning girlfriend, who'd like to see a younger girl she sees something of herself in avoid the pain she went through at the hands of Stefan Salvatore."

"So that's it? You just want me to talk to her?" Caroline questioned.

"Correct," Klaus confirmed. "I said that I was not entirely motivated by a desire to spend time enjoying your company. That is still my primary motivation."

Caroline rolled her eyes, but still smiled, at his brazen flirting.

"Stefan, and my former best friend Elena, and I all grew up together in the same small town," Caroline forced out in a rush. "Stefan and Elena were the golden couple in high school: Homecoming King and Queen, Prom King and Queen, he was on the football team and she was a cheerleader. It was like a Disney Channel musical. The three of us all decided to stick close to home for college, so we came here, and I'd resigned myself to being the third wheel, since the rest of our friends had enrolled in different colleges. But the summer after high school, Stefan and Elena broke up, and I swear, the whole town was devastated. It got worse for everyone when they found out that Elena had broken up with Stefan because she'd developed feelings for Stefan's bad seed older brother Damon. Then, a few weeks after we started our sophomore year, Stefan asked me out, and, after discussing the matter at length with Elena and receiving her blessing, I agreed. We were together for just over six months, until Elena broke up with Damon and she needed Stefan to 'comfort' her, which made him think that she wanted to get back together, and he, of course, jumped at the opportunity and dumped me, only for Elena to get back together with Damon the next week. The fight me and Elena had over it was legendary; we haven't spoken since. And when Stefan wanted us to get back together, I turned him down and have been avoiding him ever since, because honestly, watching him get his hopes up every time Elena and Damon break up only to get back together an hour later is really pathetic."

"Okay," Klaus said. "Why don't you take a breath while I process all of that."

With perfect timing, a waitress delivered their food, and Caroline eagerly attacked her grilled chicken salad while she waited for Klaus to respond.

Klaus rather deliberately speared a potato from his beef stew with his fork and let it hover over his bowl while he asked his first question.

"I'm still not entirely sure how this incident reflects poorly on you," Klaus wondered. "It seems to me like your so-called friends selfishly disregarded your feelings in favor of their own, and then expected you to have no qualms about them doing so. Your boyfriend cheated on you with your best friend—who happens to be his ex-girlfriend and his brother's current girlfriend—then tossed you aside when he thought he had a chance with her, only to see the error of his ways, at which point you rejected his advances. It seems to me like you were the victim of the situation, and in the aftermath have made careful efforts to keep your distance from those people who have hurt you in the past. I don't see how any of this is your fault, or anything you should have done instead in response."

"Still, it doesn't look great for me that my boyfriend cheated on me with his ex and then immediately dumped me for the possibility of maybe getting back together with her. He was willing to throw away his relationship with me for a chance of a relationship with her, which just goes to show how important I was to him," Caroline lamented.

"If anything, your story just made me more determined to keep Rebekah out of his clutches," Klaus told her. "But it didn't made me think any less of you."

"I appreciate that," Caroline smiled.

They continued eating in silence for a while, until eventually Klaus broke it with another question.

"How long has Stefan been harassing you?"

"I don't know if I would say harass—"

"Caroline," Klaus said sternly, raising his eyebrows.

"He seeks me out every time Elena and Damon reconcile," Caroline admitted. "So, once nine months ago, once seven months ago, once four months ago, once two months ago, and today."

"And he hasn't been able to leverage the fact that his ex and his brother are constantly breaking up in his favor?" Klaus questioned.

"You don't have to tell me, I was one of the many people who thought that Stefan and Elena were perfect together," Caroline remarked.

"Then…"

"Then why did I date Stefan when I thought that he and Elena were perfect together?" Caroline guessed.

Klaus nodded.

"Because I saw what a perfect boyfriend Stefan was to Elena, and I wanted a relationship like that," Caroline answered. "I just didn't realize right away that Stefan was only a perfect boyfriend to Elena."

"Is he as tenacious in his pursuit of your friend? Because you said that he only approaches you once she's gotten back together with his brother, and he retreated immediately once I challenged him," Klaus noted.

"He claims to be supportive of their relationship and happy that his brother is happy when they're together, but as soon as they break up, he swoops in to try to prove to Elena that he's the better man," Caroline said.

"So, tell me about this party we're going to," Klaus changed the subject.

"It is the Sigma Chi Omega Annual Open Hearts Valentine's Day Charity Event," Caroline announced proudly. "All proceeds and donations go to the American Heart Association, and as events coordinator, I'm in charge of planning the party this year. We take the heart theme very seriously, and the music is all sappy love songs, so it's a little cheesy and silly, but it's a lot of fun. I really love it."

"Well then, I am happy to be your escort to an event that clearly makes you so happy," Klaus replied. "And speaking of escorts…"

"Yeah?"

"My attendance is required at a party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my father's company, and I would be honored if you would accompany me," Klaus said. "You can meet Rebekah, and if she asks Stefan to be her date, it would be good for him to see us there together, and it might stir up enough complications to give us a chance to talk some sense into Rebekah."

"Of course, I'd be happy to come," Caroline agreed easily.

Klaus pulled out his cell phone and set it down in front of Caroline.

"We should exchange contact information before you have to go to your next class," he explained.

As Caroline added her number to his contacts and sent herself a message so she would have his number, she couldn't help but see an angry message from Rebekah, who wasn't pleased that Klaus had canceled his lunch with her in order to eat with Caroline.

"Don't worry about Rebekah," Klaus told Caroline as he took his phone back. "She's quite fond of attention, and not shy about letting someone know when they've displeased her."

"Okay," Caroline replied. "I should get to class."

"Let me walk you."

They walked across campus in companionable silence.

"I'll see you soon," Caroline said when they reached her classroom.

"Indeed you will," Klaus responded.

{ }

"Caroline Elizabeth, I can't believe you left me hanging like that!" Katherine exclaimed as soon as Caroline walked through their front door.

"I was in class, what's wrong?" Caroline asked.

"What's wrong?! What's wrong is that you last texted me over six hours ago to tell me that Stefan and Elena were in your class and then I didn't hear from you again, even though I specifically told you to keep me posted!" Katherine exclaimed.

Caroline felt like years had passed since she had texted Katherine that morning. She'd experienced several more loops on the emotional rollercoaster since her nerves about Stefan and Elena being in her anthropology class.

"I'm sorry, I kind of got distracted with other things and forgot to text you," Caroline apologized.

"Distracted with what? It's the first day of classes! All I had to do today was introduce myself a few times and skim a few reading lists," Katherine reported.

"Well, my first day of classes was quite eventful," Caroline responded. "Stefan and Elena were only the beginning of today's drama."

Katherine wandered into the kitchen, returning a moment later with two cartons of ice cream and two spoons.

"Spill," she ordered, handing the cookie dough to Caroline and keeping the rocky road for herself.

"Okay, so right after I texted you, someone comes into class late, and I wasn't paying any attention, because who cares, right? So someone's late on the first day of class. But then they sit down next to me, and I turn to look at them, and it's the guy I kissed on New Year's sitting there in the seat next to me," Caroline said, rewarding herself for getting through the explanation without interruptions with a spoonful of ice cream.

"No way!" Katherine blurted out, nearly choking on a marshmallow. "Did you get his name? His number? His Instagram handle? Because I can't give my approval of this guy without a thorough Insta stalk."

"I got two out of the three; you're out of luck with the Instagram," Caroline replied. "And it gets crazier."

"How?"

"Apparently Elena is back with Damon…"

"No way!"

"Yes way."

"Not again!"

"Yes again."

"So did Stefan…?"

"Try to convince me to get back together with him?" Caroline finished for her, pointing with her spoon. "Yeah. He kept pushing me about going with him to the Valentine's Day event, and he insisted that the only reason I was saying no was because I had a boyfriend."

"What a jerk," Katherine scoffed.

"Wait until you guess who swoops in to rescue me by pretending to be my boyfriend," Caroline told her friend.

"The guy from New Year's?!" Katherine shrieked. "Your life has never been more interesting to me."

Caroline laughed.

"So Klaus walks up, with Starbucks—which happens to be my order, by the way—and does this possessive alpha male routine and Stefan backs off right away. Then he cancels on his sister to take me to lunch, and I tell him all about Stefan, and he tells me that Stefan is talking to his sister and asks me for my help to keep her from falling for his nonsense, and then he asks me to go with him to his father's company's 25th anniversary party, and I said I would since he already told Stefan that he was my date to the Valentine's Day party."

"Who initiated the phone number exchange, you or him?" Katherine demanded.

"He did."

"Interesting," Katherine said, scraping the bottom of her carton of ice cream. "I'd have to meet him in person to be able to tell if he really likes you or if he just wants to get in your pants, but either way, I would take advantage of this opportunity to hop off the Stefan, Elena, Damon merry-go-round and hop on to someone new."

"Katherine," Caroline sighed. "Must you be so crass?"

"I might have tried to rein it in for you if you hadn't left me out of the loop all day," Katherine responded. "I was so bored, I considered paying attention in class."

"Oh, the horror," Caroline rolled her eyes.

Katherine picked up her phone.

"What did you say Klaus's last name was? I'm going to try to find his Instagram account."

"It's Mikaelson," Caroline answered.

"Mikaelson, with a K, are you sure?" Katherine repeated.

"Yes, I'm sure. Why?"

"Because Elijah's last name is Mikaelson."

Since their dinner date on New Year's Day, Katherine and Elijah had gone out multiple times each week, and had called and texted even more frequently (as stuffy as Elijah was, he was surprisingly fond of texting). Katherine didn't call him her boyfriend (yet), but Caroline knew that she wasn't seeing anyone else, and hadn't seemed interested in anyone else since she and Elijah had started dating.

"Seriously?" Caroline exclaimed.

"It's a small world, isn't it?" Katherine remarked.

"You're telling me that my best friend and roommate is dating the brother of the guy who's pretending to be my boyfriend as part of a plan to get my ex-boyfriend to leave both me and his younger sister alone?" Caroline confirmed.

"Yep," Katherine laughed. "Your life is insane. I'm just here for the food."

She tossed her now empty container of ice cream into the trash can.

"Of course this is insane!" Caroline cried. "Real people do not have fake boyfriends! Romantic comedy characters and little-known actresses looking to raise their profile have fake boyfriends! This is a whole new low for my love life, Kat!"

"Ooh, he's cute," Katherine announced, looking down at her phone.

"Are you even listening to me?" Caroline demanded.

"I'm multi-tasking," Katherine shot back. "I was listening to you while finding your new boyfriend on Instagram."

Katherine passed Caroline her phone.

"Would me reminding you that he isn't actually my boyfriend stop you from calling him that?" Caroline inquired.

"Literally not at all," Katherine answered.

Klaus's profile was public, but he didn't have many photos posted: one picture of himself with his three brothers, a handful of pictures from concerts and sporting events he'd attended, a couple of nature snapshots, and a few photos with a very pretty blonde girl.

Caroline checked all of the photos she was in, but Klaus didn't tag anyone in any of his pictures.

"Relax, Care Bear, that's Rebekah," Katherine chimed in without looking up.

"How did you know—?"

"How did I know that that's what you were freaking out about? Because I know you," Katherine replied. "And how did I know that it's Rebekah in the pictures? I recognized her from Elijah's lockscreen photo."

"Oh," Caroline said, hoping she didn't sound too relieved. "That makes sense. I mean, she clearly got the unfairly pretty gene that Klaus and Elijah did."

"You sounded awfully jealous over someone you aren't actually dating," Katherine remarked.

"I'm not jealous, and we're not dating," Caroline insisted.

Katherine raised her eyebrows, making very clear that she didn't believe Caroline.

Caroline barely believed herself.

{ }

It took what felt like a surprisingly short time for Klaus to become a permanent fixture in Caroline's life.

Caroline wasn't sure how their paths hadn't crossed before New Year's Eve, considering the frequency with which they ran into each other on campus, at the grocery store, at the library, at the bank.

At first, Caroline thought it was strange that he suddenly seemed to always be around.

Klaus seemed to find the whole situation endlessly amusing, and so did Katherine, who continued to tease Caroline over the state of her relationship with Klaus.

Their reactions to the bizarre series of coincidences only made Caroline more unnerved.

"I'd never seen Klaus before in my life until New Year's Eve," she'd ranted to Katherine one night. "And then I didn't see him again between then and the first day of classes three weeks later. And now I see him everywhere I go. That doesn't make any sense!"

Katherine had only laughed.

"Maybe the universe is trying to send you a message," she'd suggested.

Caroline did believe in messages from the universe. Keeping that in mind, she'd decided to concentrate on figuring out what exactly the universe was trying to tell her.

However, even after days of sitting next to each other in class and going to lunch together afterwards, Caroline wasn't any closer to discovering what it was that the universe wanted her to know.

Not that that was a problem for her, really, though she would never admit it out loud. Caroline found that she did enjoy spending time with Klaus, even if it was only getting coffee after running into each other while running errands.

"Don't you have friends or family that you'd rather be with instead of spending all of your free time with me?" Caroline had asked Klaus during one of their many lunches.

Klaus had laughed in response.

"Is it really so hard to believe that I truly enjoy your company?" he'd asked.

"Well, yeah, kind of!" Caroline had replied. "At least, that you enjoy my company more than anyone else's!"

"I spend plenty of time with my siblings, don't you worry," Klaus had assured her.

Days passed and turned into weeks, and Klaus still seemed utterly amused by the ever increasing amount of time that he and Caroline spent together.

But Caroline was no closer to determining the universe's message for her.

When she mentioned her frustrations to Katherine, her roommate had been less than helpful.

"Yeah, I probably just said that to try to preempt a nervous Caroline ramble," Katherine had shrugged. "I don't know about messages from the universe, but I think the message that Klaus is trying to send you is that he wants you to take a ride on his disco stick."

"Katherine, you are insane!" Caroline had retorted.

"I'm just saying, guys do not willingly spend every free minute with a girl unless they're looking to get her in their bed," Katherine had insisted.

"Not every guy is only interested in that," Caroline had disagreed. "Some guys really are just interested in friendship, and I'm sure Klaus is really just interested in being friends with me. He hasn't said or done anything, or given any hint that he wants to be more than friends."

Katherine had rolled her eyes as she'd said, "If you say so."

Determined to clear Klaus's name in Katherine's opinion, Caroline paid closer attention to him during the time they spent together, on the lookout for any words or gestures that might be interpreted as more romantic than platonic, but she didn't notice any.

What unnerved Caroline more than Katherine's insistence that Klaus was interested in having a sexual relationship with her rather than just a friendship, or even a potential romantic relationship, was how dependent she was becoming on his presence in her life.

There was one day that Caroline had slept through her morning alarm, rushing into class just as it started, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, without makeup, with her hair hastily restrained in a messy bun. Klaus had asked her if she was all right, and Caroline had replied that she was fine, that she'd just overslept. When the professor had offered the class a five minute break while she prepared the documentary that they were watching in the second half of class, Klaus had walked out of the lecture hall and returned with a skinny vanilla latte for her.

From that day on, Klaus always came to class with a Starbucks cup filled with her favorite coffee drink for Caroline.

On the Wednesday before the Mikaelson Enterprises 25th anniversary gala, Klaus spent lunch telling everything he thought Caroline should know about his family, the family business, and what to expect at the party.

He said that he didn't want Caroline walking into the lion's den unprepared.

But Caroline didn't feel any better after learning that Mikael, Esther, and Finn would all look down their noses at her, that Rebekah would insult her, that Kol would throw innuendos at her, and that Freya would be the only one who would attempt to be nice to her.

"And Elijah, if only for Katherine's sake," Caroline chimed in.

Klaus looked confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean that your brother Elijah is dating my friend and roommate Katherine," Caroline repeated. "You didn't know that?"

"I knew that Elijah was seeing a girl named Katherine, but I didn't know she was the same Katherine that you told me about," Klaus replied. "It is a rather common name, it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility for you each to be talking about a different Katherine. But that's good then, for you to have a friend there at the party."

Somehow, considering everything else Klaus had told her, that didn't make Caroline feel much better.

"It will be fine," Klaus reassured her. "My family's opinions don't matter nearly as much as they think they do, and I won't let them be unkind to you. Everything will be fine."

{ }

"Why is everything silver?" Katherine asked as they walked into the hotel ballroom where the Mikaelson Enterprises 25th anniversary gala was being held.

It wasn't technically accurate to say that everything was silver. A lot of things were silver—the centerpieces on each table, the flatware, the metallic foil writing on the place cards, the backdrop behind the stage—but many other things were white, including the tablecloths and the chairs.

"Because it's the company's silver anniversary," Caroline explained.

"So that's why you wouldn't let me buy that gold dress," Katherine realized.

"No, I wouldn't let you buy that gold dress because it was ugly and tacky," Caroline corrected. "Come on, Kat, you're meeting your boyfriend's family at a very important event for their business. Did you really want to look like a disco ball while you were making your first impression on them?"

Being the plus-ones of two of the guests of honor at the black-tie affair had required some serious shopping. Katherine and Caroline had spent an entire Saturday scouring the mall for acceptable evening gowns, relying on each other's approval of their choices, which was primarily based on whether or not they could picture anyone wearing it to the Oscars.

After several hours, Katherine had settled on a black satin dress with a V-neck, halter straps that crisscrossed over the otherwise open back, and a slit exposing most of her left leg; and Caroline had chosen a black strapless chiffon dress with a sweetheart neckline.

Caroline had fretted over jewelry, worrying that the wealthy attendees would be able to tell right away that what they were wearing was cheap and fake and chastise them in front of everyone.

Katherine had a different attitude.

"We're going to this party as the dates of two of the owner's sons," Katherine had said. "No one is going to say anything to either of us."

Even after Katherine's reassurance, Caroline still deliberated before eventually deciding to wear the small round-cut diamond stud earrings and matching silver pendant that her father and his partner had sent her for her eighteenth birthday. She'd left her hair down in polished curls and kept her makeup subtle, hoping that by adhering to the policy of less is more, she wouldn't embarrass herself or feel too young and out of place.

Katherine had taken the opposite approach, securing her long hair into a sleek high ponytail and then weaving it into a thick fishtail braid; painting her lips her signature shade of deep red, in addition to winged eyeliner and subtly smoky eyeshadows in shades of greyish brown; and choosing chandelier earrings with princess-cut cubic zirconium stones that increased in size going down, which she had purchased on sale on Black Friday, along with an oversized simulated onyx cocktail ring on her left hand.

Caroline felt like everyone's eyes were following her and Katherine as Klaus and Elijah led them to their seats at the head table, which unlike the other round tables filling the room, was a long rectangle.

Caroline's hopes of getting to sit next to Katherine were dashed when she saw the seating arrangements. Mikael and Esther were sitting at the center of the table, with their children and their dates framing them in order of age, alternating sides. So Freya and her date sat on Esther's right, and Finn and his wife Sage sat on Mikael's left, with Elijah and Katherine on Esther's side next to Freya and Keelin, and Klaus and Caroline on Mikael's side next to Finn and Sage. On Katherine's other side would be Kol and his date, while Rebekah and her date would sit on Caroline's left.

Klaus seemed dismayed as they took their seats. Mikael and Esther were speaking to guests across the room, and Freya, Rebekah, and Kol hadn't arrived yet, leaving only Finn and Sage at the table when they'd arrived.

"What's wrong?" Caroline asked.

"Nothing, love, I'm delighted to be sitting between my dull eldest brother and my spoiled brat baby sister," Klaus answered sarcastically.

"The other side of the table is the fun side?" Caroline guessed.

"Whichever side Kol is on is the fun side," Klaus replied.

"Plus, Katherine is over there, and she's the life of the party," Caroline added.

Freya and her date Keelin arrived a moment later, and both women were polite, friendly, and warm as they introduced themselves to Caroline.

"Okay, you're right, that side of the table is definitely the superior side," Caroline conceded, watching Katherine and Keelin strike up an animated conversation around Elijah.

"Would you like a drink, sweetheart?" Klaus asked Caroline.

"Isn't it kind of frowned upon at fancy events to visit the open bar before dinner is even served?" Caroline asked.

"At Mikaelson family events, we find visits to the open bar necessary to prevent murdering each other," Klaus responded.

Caroline giggled.

"And I can have the car take you home, if that's what you're worried about," Klaus continued.

The car service that the Mikaelsons hired had sent a driver to pick up each of the children and their dates for the party. Since Klaus and Elijah's dates lived in the same place, they'd arranged for the car to pick up Elijah, then Klaus, then Caroline and Katherine, and bring all four of them to the hotel together.

"Thank you, but I think I'm going to try to hold off," Caroline answered.

"Suit yourself," Klaus shrugged, walking away and returning a few minutes later with a fancy glass tumbler of scotch.

When he returned, Elijah got up and came back a few minutes later holding a similar-looking drink in one hand and a martini for Katherine in the other.

"The party hasn't even started yet and we've already given up hope of making it through it sober, looks like you've all adopted my life philosophy," a male voice said from behind the table.

"Kol," Klaus, Elijah, Freya, and Finn greeted with varying levels of enthusiasm.

But Caroline ignored him entirely in favor of the girl standing slightly behind him.

"Bonnie!" she squealed.

Bonnie Bennett had been Caroline's friend for as long as she could remember. They had been inseparable until they'd gone away to college, when Bonnie received a scholarship to a different university, forcing the girls to reluctantly separate for the next four years. They still texted, videochatted, and spoke on the phone regularly, and always made plans to meet in person to catch up during breaks from school.

But the last time they'd spoken, Bonnie hadn't mentioned that she would be at the gala.

"Caroline!" Bonnie exclaimed, as Caroline stood up so that she could give her friend a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Caroline returned.

"Kol asked me, and since I've rejected him every other time he's asked me out, I kind of wanted to see the surprised look on his face when I agreed this time. Plus I wanted to try fancy rich-person food," Bonnie answered.

"Klaus is pretending to be my boyfriend because it was the only way that Stefan would accept that I didn't want to get back together with him and leave me alone, and so that I can convince his little sister, who's been talking to Stefan, not to go there for her own good," Caroline offered in reply.

"Oh, Stefan," Bonnie sighed. "How can someone be such a perfect boyfriend to Elena, and yet not even have basic social skills around anyone else?"

"Beats me," Caroline shrugged.

Klaus cleared his throat, causing Caroline to look up and notice that all of the Mikaelson siblings (minus Rebekah, who still hadn't yet arrived) looking at her.

"How is it that you and my brother's date know each other?" Klaus asked.

"This is Bonnie; we've been friends since kindergarten!" Caroline told him happily.

"Small world," Kol commented.

Elijah introduced Katherine and Caroline to Kol, then everyone took their seats.

As Caroline and Klaus had lamented, the other side of the table was clearly having much more fun than theirs was. Katherine and Kol were keeping the others in stitches with their brilliantly funny accounts of their wild exploits.

In contrast, Finn was sitting quietly, occasionally making some judgmental remark about one of the guests to Sage, who would reply with a comment at least as harsh.

Caroline had gotten the feeling that neither Finn nor Sage liked her, as Finn looked at her critically and Sage appraised her with a bitterness and anger that Caroline wasn't sure what she'd done to deserve.

"Why do Finn and Sage not like me?" Caroline whispered to Klaus.

"They dislike almost everyone, I wouldn't take it personally," Klaus whispered back. "Finn considers everyone who isn't part of our family—and even some people who are part of our family, to be honest—inferior to him, and Sage resents everyone this family likes because when Finn first introduced her to us, we all wrote her off as a brash, course, common girl who wouldn't fit in with the family."

"Will Rebekah hate me and/or be boring?" Caroline asked hesitantly.

"Another blonde trollop, Nik? Will you ever tire of them?" a strident female voice asked from behind them.

"Rebekah is many things, but boring is not one of them," Klaus told Caroline quietly.

Louder, he called out, "If you want approval of my dates, dear sister, then I want approval of yours."

Caroline finally took her eyes off of Klaus when he finished speaking, turning around to look at Klaus's younger sister Rebekah.

The gorgeous blonde was wearing a stunning dress that looked like it was made of liquid silver, along with ruby chandelier earrings.

Of course, Rebekah's most interesting accessory was her date: a man who was not Stefan.

"Marcel!" Klaus greeted congenially. "I didn't know you were coming tonight!"

"Well, Rebekah needed a last minute stand-in, and I didn't have anything else going on, plus I know the Mikaelsons throw a great party, so I figured why not?" Marcel replied with an easy grin.

"I was going to bring Stefan, but he couldn't make it, his brother is ill and needed his assistance," Rebekah announced.

Caroline scoffed.

"And what exactly do you think is so funny?" Rebekah demanded.

"Stefan telling you that Damon is sick is a euphemism for Damon being drunk, probably after a fight with Elena, and Stefan isn't staying home to make sure that Damon has enough Kleenex and Nyquil, he's there to make sure that Damon doesn't do anything stupid like get behind the wheel of a car and risk hurting himself or anyone else," Caroline explained.

Rebekah's face went pale, but she tried to disguise it by contorting her features into a still haughtier expression.

"You haven't the slightest idea of what you're talking about," Rebekah insisted.

"Except I do, because I've been the girl that Stefan Salvatore ditches for Damon and Elena," Caroline told her.

"I can see how he might see me as a much prettier upgrade from you," Rebekah responded. "But don't think for a second that just because Stefan has gotten tired of you and tossed you aside, I'm going to let you sink your claws into my brother."

"Enough, Rebekah!" Klaus ordered through clenched teeth. "Caroline is my guest, and you will treat her with respect."

Rebekah huffed and sat down, Marcel following her lead and sitting in the last remaining seat on her left.

Rebekah evidently had a gift for impeccable timing, because almost as soon as she took her seat, Mikael—with Esther standing behind him—stepped up to the microphone and thanked everyone for coming, saying that he would make his official remarks later, but that he'd wanted to open the evening by formerly welcoming all of the guests.

When Mikael and Esther took their places at the center of the table, they each glanced down each side at their children and their guests, looking at them appraisingly, critically, rather than welcomingly.

"Marcellus is a bit old for you, isn't he, Becky dear?" Mikael addressed Rebekah.

"I see nothing wrong with bringing a family friend to a family event after my date had a family emergency and needed to cancel," Rebekah responded. "I'm not going to marry Marcel, Father, we're just going to sit next to each other during dinner."

Mikael nodded.

"Very well then," he relented.

Klaus had told Caroline that Mikael's favorite children were his daughters—his oldest and youngest children—then—to a somewhat lesser extent—his two eldest sons, leaving only Klaus and Kol without their father's favor.

Neither Mikael nor Esther showed any interest in any of their other children's dates, talking to Freya and Finn and ignoring everyone else.

It was their parents' preferences that determined their children's positions in the company. Finn, as the eldest son and their mother's favorite, would become the chief executive officer when their father stepped down. Freya, the eldest daughter and their father's favorite, would become chief operations officer, which Klaus explained to Caroline was the person who was actually in charge of running the company, day-in and day-out. Elijah, adored and respected by both his parents, and considered the smartest of the lot, showing an aptitude for mathematics from a young age, was the only one of their children they had confidence in to trust with the company's money, so he would become chief financial officer. Rebekah would get to take her pick of any other C-suite level position when the time came, and Klaus and Kol would simply be assigned whatever job needed to be filled at the time.

"Whatever Mikael thinks we're least likely to screw up," was how Klaus had put it.

Now after meeting him, Caroline realized that Klaus hadn't been exaggerating Mikael's cold, aloof nature. Even his expression of interest towards Rebekah had seemed condescending, almost controlling.

"You were right," Caroline told Klaus.

"About what?" Klaus asked.

"The inferior side of the table needs booze, right now," Caroline said.

"Now you're talking!" Marcel spoke up.

Even Rebekah seemed to be in reluctant agreement with Caroline's strategy to surviving the remainder of the gala.

The food was served moments after Klaus returned with drinks for the four of them.

The head table was now clearly divided into sections: Esther, Mikael, Finn and Sage made up one group; Elijah, Katherine, Kol, and Bonnie made up another; and Klaus, Caroline, Rebekah, and Marcel made up the third, while Freya and Keelin were able to fit in with both Esther's group and Elijah's at their leisure.

After a cosmopolitan apiece and some compliments from Caroline, Rebekah seemed considerably friendlier towards her brother's date, as the four of them banded together to try to make the truly rather dull occasion more interesting.

Once dinner was finished, Mikael made a speech reflecting on the last twenty-five years, to which Klaus and Rebekah each offered their own sarcastic commentary that made Caroline worry that she would humiliate herself by bursting out laughing while Mikael was speaking.

Following Mikael's speech, guests were free to dance, mingle, or leave if they wanted to.

"Would you like to dance?" Klaus asked Caroline.

"I would be happy to," Caroline replied.

The dance floor was full of couples as the band played a stately waltz, including Katherine and Elijah and Kol and Bonnie.

"Please tell me that dessert will be served soon, and that we can leave after that," Caroline pleaded.

"We won't be the only ones leaving once we've finished with dessert," Klaus answered. "The party loses some of its appeal for many of the guests once we stop serving them food."

Caroline nodded.

"You look beautiful," Klaus told Caroline. "I can't remember if I told you that already."

"You did," Caroline laughed softly. "But it's nice to hear all the same."

When the waltz ended and the band picked up the tempo with a fun swing tune, Klaus looked at Caroline questioningly, silently asking if she wanted to stay and dance to the next song, to which Caroline smiled and nodded eagerly in response.

As promised, after half an hour of dancing with Klaus, Caroline was back in her seat at the head table, enjoying a piece of raspberry swirl cheesecake.

It wasn't long after that before guests started to say their goodbyes and file out the door, citing work or family obligations the next day, and, with their networking obligations fulfilled, they really had no reason to stay any longer.

Finn and Sage were the first of the Mikaelsons to leave, which surprised none of Finn's siblings.

"I'm surprised he made it this long, the dullard," Kol remarked, his voice carrying over the empty seats once occupied by Finn, Sage, Mikael, and Esther, who had all left the table.

Not long after that, Caroline caught Katherine running her hands up Elijah's chest and whispering something in his ear that made his eyes go wide as he pulled her to her feet. They only stopped briefly to tell Caroline that Katherine was going to spend the night with Elijah and that they would instruct the driver to return to the hotel to take Caroline home before they hurried out the door.

"Will you be all right in your apartment alone?" Klaus asked.

"This isn't the first time that Katherine has spent the night somewhere else," Caroline replied. "And considering that I know more about Katherine's plans for tonight, as well as what she is and isn't wearing under her dress, than I really want to, I'm glad they're going to be at Elijah's apartment and not mine."

By the time Freya and Keelin made their exit, the ballroom was nearly empty except for a few stragglers enjoying a final drink, and the remaining members of the Mikaelson family and their guests.

Kol and Bonnie had moved over to sit next to Klaus and Caroline, and all of them were talking and laughing together when Mikael approached the table, without his wife for the first time that night.

"Niklaus, I need to speak with you, alone," Mikael stated firmly.

It was clearly not a request, but an order.

Klaus nodded, then turned to Caroline.

"No one can ignore the summons," he remarked. "The driver will take you home. Thank you for accompanying me this evening; your presence made this occasion exponentially more palatable."

"I can wait for you in the lobby if you want. I don't mind waiting," Caroline offered.

"That isn't necessary," Klaus replied. "It's getting late, and I don't know how long my father is going to scold me for whatever it is I've done wrong this time. You should go home, escape the Mikaelson madness while you can."

"Okay," Caroline agreed, but as she turned and exited the ballroom, she had a bad feeling about leaving Klaus behind.

{ }

By 11:00, Caroline was home, in her pajamas with her makeup washed off, sitting on the couch and taking advantage of Katherine choosing to spend the night with Elijah at his apartment so that she could watch some of the recordings waiting in her DVR, when she was startled by someone pounding urgently on the front door.

Caroline hesitantly checked the peephole, knowing that Kat had her keys with her, and even if she didn't, whoever was knocking was exerting more force than Katherine ever would.

Caroline relaxed when she saw that it was just Klaus and pulled open the door.

"Come in," she invited.

Even if Caroline hadn't grown up with a sheriff for a mother, she would have easily been able to tell that Klaus was drunk. His eyes were glassy, his movements clumsy, he smelled like the floor of a bar.

She'd only seen him have two drinks at the party. What had happened after she'd left?

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important," Klaus offered.

"I can't even begin to tell you how much you're not," Caroline replied. "I was literally just sitting here trying to figure out why the guy who played Logan on _Gilmore Girls_ is so much hotter over ten years later playing a doctor on this show. I think it's the beard."

"Okay…?"

"Um, it's late, and I'm sure your driver doesn't want to come to my apartment for the third time tonight, so I can drive you home whenever you want to leave," Caroline changed the subject.

"I'm sure Arthur appreciates your concern, but I assure you, he is well-compensated for our privilege of calling him at any time day or night," Klaus responded.

"If only everyone had a professional driver on speed dial," Caroline remarked. "There would be far fewer accidents, no one would have any excuse or reason to drive drunk."

"Yes, I remembered how important this particular issue is to you, and I wouldn't want to risk incurring your wrath," Klaus explained. "Why is that, by the way? Were you in an accident with a drunk driver?"

His question was asked with all the guilelessness of a drunk or a small child.

"No," Caroline decided to answer his question honestly and completely. "Elena's parents were killed by a drunk driver. We were at a party, and Elena had called her mom to come pick her up after she and Stefan had gotten into a fight over something trivial. When I couldn't find Elena after she'd left, I called her, and I heard the accident over the phone. I heard the other car collide with Elena's family's, and then I heard the splash when the car went over the side of the bridge and landed in the river. I told Stefan, and we both took off running to try to find them. When we got there, the car was sinking. I called my mom so she could send police officers and medics to help, and Stefan dived in to try to save them himself. He got Elena out of the car, but her parents drowned before help arrived, and there was nothing anyone could do."

"I'm sorry," Klaus offered.

Caroline looked down at her lap, suddenly very self-conscious and very aware that Klaus was still dressed in the suit that he'd worn to the gala—though he'd removed his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt, and she was wearing her Piglet pajamas—the pale pink fleece sweatshirt decorated with an applique of the character and the fleece pants with horizontal stripes in shades of pink that matched the two colors on the sweatshirt—which were the furthest thing from flattering or sophisticated.

"So if I'm a little uptight about making sure my friends have a sober ride, it's only because I don't want anyone getting hurt, and I don't want a repeat of a situation where I'm standing there, helpless, while people I care about are hurt and I can't do anything to help them," Caroline added.

"You did, though," Klaus pointed out. "You called for help, from people who were trained to know what to do in that situation. You did the only thing that you could do, and it wasn't your fault that it wasn't enough to save your friend's parents."

"I guess," Caroline shrugged.

"Since we're sharing our deep, dark secrets," Klaus said. "The reason that my father wanted to speak with me tonight after everyone else left was to tell me that he'd changed his mind, and that he doesn't want me to have any part of his company."

"What? Why?" Caroline asked.

She'd been curious about why Mikael had insisted on talking to Klaus with no one else present, and why Klaus had adamantly rejected her offers to wait for him, but she wouldn't have thought their meeting would have been for so serious a reason.

"Mikael isn't my biological father," Klaus explained with a sigh. "My mother had an affair and became pregnant with me as a result. Her husband is a very proud man who would never want anyone to find out that he had been cuckolded, so he remained married to my mother and claimed me as his own son."

"So what's changed?" Caroline wondered.

"He told me tonight that he wanted his company to remain in the hands of his blood family, which does not include me," Klaus answered. "I don't know if that decision is a recent change of heart or if he'd always intended to cut me out of the company and only said something now that the possibility of me going to work for the family business isn't an abstract concept that might occur in the distant future anymore."

"I'm sorry," Caroline offered.

"He told me to tell you this, actually," Klaus barked out a harsh laugh. "He wanted me to tell you that I wasn't going to inherit anything from the company, so you would be better off trying to get Kol to settle down than wasting any more of your time with me."

It didn't seem to have occurred to Klaus that Caroline might be offended by him telling her that his father had accused her of being a gold digger. Caroline was appalled and offended on both of their behalves: her own, for Mikael calling her a gold digger, and Klaus's, for Mikael insinuating that someone would only want to be with him because of his family's money.

"I'm not wasting my time with you," Caroline said, reaching out to place her hand on Klaus's arm in a small gesture of comfort.

Klaus chuckled again.

"Mikael wasn't the only one who thought so, considering how many pairs of eyes were glaring at me with envy when they saw you with me, plotting how they could convince you to go home with them instead."

And yet, here he was, on her couch.

It occurred to Caroline that she should feel proud of her acting abilities, that they'd been able to convince Mikael and so many other people at the party that they were a real couple, but instead she just felt sad.

If asked, Caroline would say she didn't know who moved first.

(Except she did know, and it wasn't her.)

But one minute she and Klaus were sitting next to each other on the couch, the next she was pressed against the arm, Klaus's lips on hers and his hands tangled in her hair.

Caroline felt like her skin was on fire. Everywhere her body was pressed up against Klaus's felt like it was burning, like it was melting.

When Klaus pulled back from her, Caroline was prepared to wave off an apology, to remind him that they'd kissed before, that he'd been drunk then too, that it was no big deal, and that of course she would still help Rebekah as much as she could.

But then she saw that he was throwing his suit jacket onto the coffee table and unbuttoning his dress shirt.

They hadn't done that before.

Caroline would be lying if she said that she'd never thought about what it would be like to sleep with Klaus. Just because they weren't really dating didn't mean that Caroline couldn't observe that he was hot.

However, Caroline had not given any thought to how she would react if Klaus expressed a desire to sleep with her. For all of his casual flirting and charm, Klaus had never said or done anything that gave Caroline the impression that he was sincerely interested in her.

Apparently Caroline's racing mind wasn't evident on the outside, because Klaus seemed not to be able to notice the inner turmoil she was currently experiencing.

Which was good. Because Klaus clearly wanted this, having initiated it. But Caroline wasn't sure, not because she didn't want to sleep with Klaus, but because she wasn't sure what this would mean for their relationship, and even though they weren't really together, Caroline liked to think that they'd formed at least the beginnings of a friendship over the past few weeks. Caroline didn't want one impulsive decision to ruin it.

Though it wasn't always something she liked about herself, Caroline wasn't impulsive, or spontaneous, or flexible. She wasn't a person who threw caution to the wind and just did what felt right in the moment without considering the consequences.

But it looked like tonight she would have to, because she couldn't exactly make a pro-con list while pinned under a now shirtless Klaus on her couch.

When their lips met again, Klaus moved his hands under Caroline's pajama top to rest on the skin of her waist, causing Caroline to shiver.

"Is this okay?" Klaus asked hesitantly. "If you don't want to do this, it's okay. Just tell me and I'll go."

The idea of Klaus leaving and finding someone else to be with made a sudden surge of jealousy flash through Caroline. He needed this, and she couldn't stomach the thought of someone else being the one to give it to him. She pictured him with a loud, brash, laidback brunette, who was confident and reckless and fought her own battles—the complete opposite of her. She didn't want Klaus to sleep with this nameless brown-haired girl, she wanted him to sleep with her.

She could do this for him, she could be the one who gave him what he needed.

And since he was here, she'd clearly been his first choice, and that had to mean something, right?

She knew that eventually she would have to give some serious thought to her feelings of jealousy, but for now she was choosing to act rather than overthink.

Caroline had made her decision, no lists required. After spending a lifetime hoping that someday she might be someone's first choice, she couldn't squander the opportunity when it finally arrived.

"No, it's okay, I want this," Caroline told Klaus.

Klaus grinned.

"I was really hoping you would say something like that," he replied.

{ }

When Caroline woke up the next morning, her head was tucked under Klaus's chin, her head resting on his shoulder, with her nose pressed against his collarbone. Her legs were curled up against his, and one of her arms was splayed out across his chest.

She felt warm, and content, and safe, and loved.

Caroline quickly sat up.

She wasn't loved, not by Klaus. Klaus was just doing her a favor because college boys didn't take no for an answer if it came from the mouth of a college girl, in exchange for her helping him steer his sister away from said college boy. Klaus had come to her apartment last night, drunk, not because he wanted her, but because he wanted a warm body to lose himself in.

But Caroline hadn't been drunk, and she'd wanted him.

She'd wanted Klaus.

Caroline wasn't sure if there were actual rules for successfully surviving a fake relationship, but she was pretty sure that if there were, the first one would be 'Do not develop real feelings for your fake boyfriend.'

And Caroline had failed spectacularly.

If she was smarter, she would have politely but firmly rejected Klaus's advances last night and gone to bed, alone, after telling Klaus that he was welcome to sleep on the couch.

Instead, because she was stupid, Klaus was currently asleep in her bed, naked, since neither of them had bothered to get dressed the night before.

He looked relaxed in his sleep, a far cry from how tense he had been when he'd knocked on the door just hours earlier.

Of course, last night's activities had surely released his tension, if nothing else.

It hadn't been fairy-tale, romance novel 'making love,' and Caroline supposed she was grateful for that, knowing that it would only hurt more when he inevitably walked away if he'd been sweet and selfless and loving in bed.

Don't get her wrong, it had been good—really good—but it hadn't been the cliché magic that sex was supposed to be when you were with someone you loved. It had been urgent, and a little uncoordinated, and even impersonal, considering that Klaus had never once said her name or looked her in the eye. In fact, aside from Klaus asking Caroline to reaffirm her consent at various points as the night progressed and a somehow only slightly awkward conversation about birth control, neither of them spoke at all.

When he woke up, he would either ask her to pretend that it had never happened, or propose that they repeat it regularly as part of their agreement, because why shouldn't they reap the rewards of being in a relationship while they were pretending to be in one?

Either way, Klaus would confirm that he didn't have any real feelings for Caroline, and Caroline would get her feelings hurt.

So Caroline did what she always did when she wanted to avoid something or someone:

She ran.

She got out of bed as quickly as she could without risking waking up Klaus, got dressed in a casual outfit, and slipped out of her room carrying her shoes and her bag. She crept back in a few minutes later with a glass of water, some pain relievers, and a hastily-scribbled note telling him that she'd had to leave to meet with some classmates for a group project and that she was sorry to have to leave so early, which she left on her nightstand.

Then she snuck out of her own apartment so that she wouldn't have to deal with an awkward morning after conversation that she would really rather postpone as long as possible.

Caroline made sure her phone was on silent before hiding away in a study carrel tucked in the corner of the modern French literature section of the stacks on the third floor, where she wouldn't run into anyone she knew and no one she knew would think to look for her.

Forty-five minutes later, Caroline's phone lit up, Klaus's name flashing across the screen.

Caroline ignored the call.

He called every five minutes for the next twenty minutes, and Caroline ignored it every time.

Then she received a text.

 **Katherine:** I just got home and you're not here, but your boyfriend is? He asked me to text you to make sure you're still alive since you aren't answering his calls… What's up, Care? You two seemed good last night.

 **Caroline:** I'm alive. I'll talk to you later.

 **Katherine:** Got it. I'll get rid of him.

A few minutes later, Caroline received a message from a different sender.

 **Rebekah:** Good morning, Caroline! It was so great meeting you last night! I was wondering if you would be interested in going shopping with my sister and me tomorrow afternoon? I plan to invite Katherine as well, and I think this will be a great opportunity for the four of us to get to know each other better! Please let me know if you're available!

It was too early for Rebekah's enthusiasm for shopping, thinly-veiled threats of interrogation, and the promise of bonding over sharing embarrassing stories about her brothers.

Caroline was sure that Klaus would be pleased that Rebekah seemed to have fallen for their ruse, but at the moment, she didn't want to think about how they were apparently such a convincing couple that they'd fooled even Klaus's beloved baby sister, all for their entire relationship to just be a charade.

Of course, Caroline knew that avoidance wouldn't work indefinitely. The Valentine's Day party that was at the heart of why she'd agreed to this plan in the first place was in just a few days, and it would be foolish to cut ties with Klaus now, before he'd fulfilled his end of the bargain to convince Stefan that she'd moved on and that he should leave her alone.

So she wrote an apology to Rebekah, citing a meeting of the events committee as her excuse to miss Rebekah's planned shopping trip.

Was it mature of her to lie to get out of plans she didn't want to participate in?

No, it probably wasn't, but neither was throwing herself into last minute event planning to such an extreme that she completely ignored Katherine, Klaus, and Rebekah, and even hiding in a seat in the back of the class she had with Klaus to make sure that she wouldn't have to face him yet—and Caroline did that, too.

{ }

 _Valentine's Day_

Caroline woke up on Valentine's Day feeling decidedly less enthusiastic than she normally did on a holiday that involved eating excessive amounts of candy, but she was determined to find a way to get in the spirit of the day before the party she'd planned that night.

So she dragged herself out of bed and pulled on a light pink sweater patterned with small red hearts along with red corduroy pants and fun, festive conversation-heart-print socks that she'd found in the dollar bin at Target.

Caroline was just pouring some cereal into a bowl for breakfast when she heard a knock at the door.

"Are you Katherine Pierce?" the deliveryman asked as soon as Caroline opened the door.

"No, she's my roommate," Caroline answered.

"I just need your signature here, please, ma'am," the man said, handing over an electronic signature pad.

Caroline signed her name in the box and handed it back.

The deliveryman retrieved something from what looked like a cooler behind him, then handed Caroline the large bouquet of light purple roses that had been delivered for Katherine.

"There you go, have a nice day, ma'am," he said.

"Thank you, you too," Caroline replied.

Closing the door and retreating back into the kitchen, Caroline filled a vase with water and arranged Katherine's roses in it after carefully detaching the note attached so that it wouldn't get wet.

Katherine finally emerged from her room about forty-five minutes later, after Caroline had already finished her breakfast and was working on some reading for her anthropology class at the kitchen table.

"Where did the flowers come from?" Katherine asked groggily.

"They're for you. Elijah sent them," Caroline answered. "There's a note. I didn't read it, but I had to take it off so that it didn't fall in the vase and drown."

"Why purple?" Katherine questioned. "My favorite color is red, not purple."

"Well, red roses on Valentine's Day are kind of a cliché, plus they mean 'I love you,' so he probably didn't want to move too quickly," Caroline suggested.

"Then what do purple roses mean?" Katherine asked.

Caroline pulled out her phone and Googled it.

"They mean enchantment," Caroline answered. "And—aww! That's so sweet!—love at first sight. They're like the flower version of that Taylor Swift song."

"Are you serious?" Katherine demanded, reaching for the phone.

"About the flowers? Of course, Pinterest wouldn't lie about something like this," Caroline insisted. "And the Taylor Swift song is literally called 'Enchanted,' and yes, we will be listening to it on repeat for the rest of the day, because it's about time that the Taylor Swift song that best describes both of our love lives is not 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,' and we need to celebrate this development."

"We've only known each other for six weeks, and he's already sending me flowers that mean he's enchanted by me and fell in love with me at first sight? That's a little intense, don't you think?" Katherine worried.

"First of all, we don't know for sure that Elijah looked up the meaning of this particular color of roses before he sent them to you, maybe he just thought that they were unique and beautiful, just like you," Caroline proposed, and was promptly met by a disbelieving look from Katherine. "Except that it's Elijah, so we absolutely know for sure that he looked up the meaning of the flowers before he sent them to you. But secondly, this is not the first time that you've this kind of impact on a guy so quickly. You frequently have that effect on people."

"But Elijah's smarter than all of those guys," Katherine responded.

Caroline sighed.

"It's Valentine's Day, Kat, it's a day entirely devoted to love, and the best day of the year to make a romantic gesture. Read the note, call him to say thank you for the flowers, and you'll talk to him later at the party. And no offense, but I think you're seriously overreacting considering how many people would kill for your alleged 'problem' of having a handsome, smart, caring, financially stable guy fall in love with you so soon."

"You still haven't talked to Klaus?" Katherine questioned sympathetically.

"No, not since he was here after the gala on Saturday night," Caroline answered. "I even hid in the back during class on Monday and Wednesday so that I wouldn't have to sit next to him. I can only see the conversation going one of two ways: he tells me that it was a mistake and asks if we can forget it ever happened, or he proposes some sort of fake-dating-with-benefits arrangement."

"And that isn't what you want," Katherine stated. "Do you have feelings for Klaus, Caroline?"

Caroline was silent for a long moment.

"Yes," she finally admitted. "Yeah, I think I do."

"Well, congratulations, you're officially the last to know," Katherine replied. "But how can you be so sure that he doesn't have feelings for you, too?"

"Precedent?" Caroline offered skeptically. "The fact that no one ever has? My entire romantic history is made up of guys who didn't really love me. There's Stefan, who is still in love with Elena even though she dumped him for his brother years ago; there's Tyler, who cheated on me with that girl… what was her name again?"

"You mean 'Slutty Sophie?'" Katherine supplied.

"No?" Caroline answered slowly. "I was talking about that girl he met during his spring break volunteer trip to the wolf sanctuary? She had brown hair, green eyes, couldn't have looked more cheap if she tried? Wait, are you saying that Tyler cheated on me with Sophie, too?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I thought you knew. Whoops," Katherine apologized. "And the wolf girl's name was Hayley."

"Right," Caroline nodded. "And before that I dated Matt, who was also still in love with Elena. I've never been anyone's first choice, so why should I think that everything has suddenly changed?"

"Well, for one thing, Klaus has never met Elena," Katherine pointed out. "All he knows about her is what he heard from you, which wouldn't exactly make him think that she's the bee's knees. Second, you have to have seen the way he looks at you."

"No, how does he look at me?"

"Like you're the sun, or a chocolate cake," Katherine answered, her voice somewhat mocking but clearly amused.

"I don't know, Kat…"

"Look," Katherine said commandingly. "Don't let your insecurities convince you that Klaus doesn't want to be with you before you actually talk to him and find out what he wants. Yes, you've dated guys who haven't treated you as well as they should have, but from what I've seen of your relationship with Klaus, he's already a much better boyfriend than they were, and he isn't even officially your boyfriend. We can do this together, okay? I will call Elijah to thank him for the flowers and find out what they mean before I jump to conclusions about our relationship moving too fast, and you talk to Klaus and figure out where your relationship goes from here. I'll see you at the party tonight, and we can compare notes then."

"Okay," Caroline agreed. "I'll see you at the party."

{ }

Caroline didn't think that Katherine would be too angry with her for not technically holding up her end of the bargain.

It was just that she knew that Klaus was in class all Thursday afternoon, and she didn't want to have the conversation they needed to have through text messages while he only paid her a fraction of his attention while he also tried to concentrate on his professor's lecture.

By the time his class was over, it would be time for Caroline to head back to her apartment to get ready for the party after spending her afternoon setting up in the ballroom of the student center where the event was taking place.

So Caroline just sent him a text telling him that she needed to talk to him in person before the party, and then went back to arranging balloons and plugging in the sound system.

When Caroline was satisfied with her work, she left some underclassmen she'd recruited for the events committee to finish up and went home to change. Checking her phone, she noticed that she hadn't received a reply from Klaus, but she did have a new message from Katherine, telling her that she and Elijah were going out to dinner before the party and that she would see her there.

Caroline wasn't surprised that Katherine and Elijah were going out on a date on Valentine's Day, though she was glad that they seemed to have resolved the purple roses debacle and that Kat hadn't dumped Elijah over it.

(So she shipped Katherine and Elijah, sue her. Her best friend was happy with a good guy who was clearly head over heels for her. Of course she was supportive of their relationship.)

But Caroline was surprised when she approached the door to her apartment to find Klaus sitting on the ground in front of it.

"Klaus?" Caroline called out tentatively.

His head immediately shot up and he quickly scrambled to his feet.

"I didn't check my phone until the end of class, but when I saw that you texted me I just came straight over," Klaus explained.

He seemed nervous, Caroline noted, which was good, because she was nervous about the conversation they were about to have as well.

"We should go inside, I don't have much time before I have to start getting ready for the party," Caroline said, moving forward and unlocking the door.

"I'll need to go home to change too," Klaus said, gesturing to the grey henley and black jeans he was wearing.

"Um, Katherine and Elijah went out to dinner, do you want to order in some food for the two of us?" Caroline asked.

"Sure," Klaus agreed.

After Caroline called to order a pizza (the local pizza place was running a special on a heart-shaped pizza for Valentine's Day, how was she supposed to resist such an offer?!), she moved into the living room and sat down next to Klaus on the couch.

Klaus was looking down at his lap, tapping his fingers on his knee.

Then he looked up at Caroline.

"I just need you to know that I'm sorry," Klaus blurted out. "I understand if you don't accept my apology, but I need to say it all the same."

"Sorry for what?" Caroline asked.

"I know that you said you wanted me, and you acted like you wanted me, but then you were gone when I woke up the next morning, so something must have changed, or you got scared, or you just felt sorry for me and then realized you deserved better, or maybe it wasn't good for you," the words spilled out of Klaus rapidly.

Caroline shook her head emphatically, tempted to lean forward and take Klaus's hand, but she wasn't sure how the action would be received.

"I thought that by leaving I was postponing a conversation that neither of us wanted to have, and I was saving you the trouble of having to tell me that that didn't mean that you wanted to be my boyfriend. I know that you can tell that I'm a relationship girl from a mile away, but I didn't think that you would fall in love with me just because we slept together."

"What makes you think I don't want to be your boyfriend?" Klaus asked quizzically.

"The fact that I've never really had a boyfriend who wanted to be my boyfriend?" Caroline answered. "Most of them were with me to try to get over Elena, or because Elena wasn't available, and the only one who wasn't interested in Elena cheated on me with a girl he met at a wolf sanctuary. I've never been anyone's first choice, so I just kind of assumed that I wasn't yours either."

"I've never spoken to this Elena, but I can't imagine that she could hold a candle to you," Klaus declared. "I've never had a girlfriend who either Rebekah or Kol liked, and they both like you, and the only other girlfriend I ever had that Elijah liked, was seeing both of us at the same time."

"Sounds like your romantic history is at least as messy as mine," Caroline joked.

"Why were you afraid of talking to me about this?" Klaus asked.

"Like I said, I didn't think either of us wanted to have this conversation, and that we'd both be happier if we could just put it off," Caroline replied.

"But we weren't happier," Klaus noted. "You were ignoring me and hiding from me, and I felt guilty and worried that you would never talk to me again."

Before Caroline could answer, the doorbell rang.

"It's the pizza," Caroline muttered needlessly.

"I'll take care of it," Klaus offered, standing up, taking his wallet out of his pocket, and striding purposefully towards the door.

Caroline reluctantly allowed him to pay, going into the kitchen to set the table and get a couple of sodas from the refrigerator.

Klaus launched right back into their discussion as soon as he entered the dining room with the pizza.

"Caroline, what were you so afraid of?"

"I wanted it to be real," Caroline took a deep breath, feeling tears well up in her eyes. "I wanted it to be real, but you were drunk and I wasn't, and for all I know I could have been anyone while you were picturing someone else because you didn't even look at me the entire time, and I wouldn't have been able to handle it if the next morning you'd said it was a mistake and asked me to forget that it ever happened, or if you'd said that we might as well keep sleeping together while we were pretending to actually be together, because why not, as if it didn't mean anything, as if it didn't even matter."

By the time she finished speaking, tears were rolling in thick streams down Caroline's cheeks.

Klaus stood from his chair and knelt in front of Caroline's, using one hand to wipe away her tears and the other to hold one of Caroline's hands.

"I never wanted to pretend to be your boyfriend, Caroline," Klaus told her.

Caroline recoiled and tried to pull her hand away from Klaus's.

"I wanted to be your boyfriend for real," he continued. "But after the way we met, I didn't know if you'd ever give me a chance. I'd hung back after class that first day because I wanted to talk to you, see if you would be receptive to maybe going out to dinner with me so that I could show you that I was more than just a spoiled punk who gets drunk every time he has a fight with his father. When I heard you arguing with Stefan, I saw a chance and I took it. It's always been real for me, Caroline."

"Really?" Caroline asked after a stunned silence in which she tried to process what Klaus had said.

"Yes, really," Klaus responded with a chuckle. He softly brushed Caroline's hair away from her face. "I'm yours if you'll have me."

Caroline nodded eagerly, her tears flowing freely once more.

She leaned forward, resting her hands on either side of Klaus's face as she kissed him.

Klaus responded enthusiastically, until he pulled away much too soon, causing Caroline to pout.

"Sweetheart, you know I would much rather celebrate today with our own private party, but the charity event you've planned is important to you and your friends, so we can't afford to get distracted or we'll be late."

Caroline considered this, glancing at the clock on the stove.

"Do you need to take a shower before the party?"

Klaus looked puzzled, and didn't answer.

"Because I was going to take a shower before the party, and if you hurry and go grab your clothes from home, we should have time to consummate our new relationship in the shower when you get back and still make it on time."

Caroline laughed as Klaus bolted for the door.

{ }

Caroline's time management skills left something to be desired, at least where Klaus was concerned, because they were barely, but definitely, late to the party.

In fact, they arrived only a few minutes before Katherine—who was the most habitually tardy person that Caroline had ever met—and Elijah—whose promptness seemed to have rubbed off on Katherine at least somewhat.

The other couple walked into the ballroom hand-in-hand, Elijah wearing a white dress shirt, black trousers, and a red tie that matched Katherine's red wrap dress.

To Caroline, they looked like the definition of a power couple.

Klaus and Caroline weren't matching, and were far too happy and giggly to look like a power couple even if they had been. Caroline was wearing a bubblegum pink dress with ruffles at the hem and a bow around the waist, while Klaus wore a white button-down shirt and black trousers.

"Caroline!" Katherine called out, hurrying towards her.

Leaving the brothers to their own devices, Katherine took Caroline's hand and dragged her into a corner.

"Well?" Katherine interrogated. "How did it go? What happened?"

"As of an hour-and-a-half ago, Klaus is my boyfriend now, for real," Caroline beamed. "What about you, did you solve the mystery of the flowers?"

"Yes, and you were right about me overreacting," Katherine conceded. "Elijah said that he sent me purple roses because, and I'm quoting, I've enchanted him since the moment we met."

"Aww, that's so cute!" Caroline exclaimed.

"Also, I love that Taylor Swift song you were talking about. You were right about it being the musical equivalent of my purple roses," Katherine continued.

"I'm so happy for us!" Caroline cried.

The girls' squealing, giggling, and happily bouncing up and down while holding hands was interrupted by the vice president of Caroline's sorority telling Caroline that it was time for her to address the partygoers.

As was her duty as event coordinator, Caroline welcomed everyone to the event, thanked them all for coming, and let them know how they could donate to the cause as well as giving them the total amount of money that they'd already raised.

She would have to give another update at the end of the party, but until then, Caroline could do whatever she wanted.

So she decided to go find her boyfriend, who was standing near a table covered with pink-frosted heart-shaped cookies along with her best friend and his brother.

"This is very festive, you did a great job, sweetheart," Klaus praised.

"Thank you," Caroline replied.

The room certainly was festive, with bouquets of red and pink heart-shaped balloons placed along the perimeter, pink heart-shaped confetti on every flat surface, tables with cookies and candy that were all pink, in the shape of a heart, or both. A playlist of cheesy love songs played over the speakers, and there were four red heart-shaped locked boxes strategically spread out throughout the room to collect donations.

After Katherine dragged Elijah with her onto the dance floor, Caroline heard a familiar voice call her name, and turned around to see Stefan walking towards her.

"Hi, Stefan, thank you for coming tonight to support Sigma Chi Omega and the American Heart Association," Caroline smiled placidly.

As Caroline spoke, Klaus moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"The place looks great, Care," Stefan said.

"Thank you," Caroline responded.

"Hi, Klaus, right?" Stefan finally acknowledged Klaus's presence.

"Stefan," Klaus replied woodenly.

"Stefan, did you bring a date with you tonight?" Caroline asked.

"No, it's just me," Stefan admitted, fidgeting as he spoke. "The girl I asked to come with me sent me a very long and angry text message on Sunday morning telling me that she'd heard about my lingering feelings for Elena and my… habit of prioritizing Damon and Elena over anyone else and that she wanted nothing to do with me."

"Well, maybe that will be the encouragement you need to finally kick the habit," Caroline suggested cheerfully.

"Maybe," But he didn't look convinced. "Well, I just wanted to say hi, it seemed like the polite thing to do."

"Enjoy the party," Caroline offered, hoping to hurry along the end of this conversation.

"You two look really happy together," Stefan said. "I'm happy that you're happy, Care."

"Thank you."

When Stefan finally wandered away, Caroline turned to face Klaus.

"Did you know that Rebekah did that?" she asked.

"I didn't," Klaus insisted. "I guess your words had a greater impact on her than we thought."

"I need to apologize to her," Caroline confessed. "She invited me to go shopping with her while I was hiding from you and I made up an excuse not to go."

"Don't worry about Rebekah. As dramatic as she is, she probably sympathizes with the situation more than most," Klaus commented. "As it is, now we've both accomplished our objectives: Stefan is no longer pursuing either you or Rebekah."

"So now what?" Caroline asked with a smile, leaning in closer to him.

"What would you like to do now?"

"I would like to kiss you, and then dance with you, and then kiss you again, and then eat some more candy, and then kiss you again, and then dance with you again, and then kiss you again, and then go home with you and kiss you some more," Caroline listed with a big, happy grin on her face.

So that's what they did.

* * *

Thank you so much for reading!

I would love to know what you thought, so please leave a review; I love reading them!

lots of love,  
charlotte


End file.
